LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Shelf J^.h..- 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



CLASS-BOOK 



OF 



BIBLICAL HISTORY 



AND 



GEOGRAPHY: 



V/TTH NUMEROUS MAPS 



,.oV OF 00,73^, 

3 '891 „ 
PROF. H. S. OSBORN, LL. D. j) 



.^ 



AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. 



\ ^ 






COPYRIGHT, 1890. 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 



PREFACE. 



This work is a Class-Book of the Old and the 
New Testaments treated as consecutive history. It 
includes the Jewish history of the centuries between 
the close of the Old Testament and the beginning 
of the New. 

It presents those important elements of Biblical 
history which distinguish it from all other histories 
and which illustrate the plan and the purpose of 
the Bible as one Book. Whatever modem scholar- 
ship has accomplished to aid in the understanding 
of the original languages of Scripture in important 
points has been made use of, and whatever monu- 
mental or topographic discoveries would contribute 
to a better understanding of the geography or 
archaeology of the text-statements have been intro- 
duced where the history required it. 

The history of the centuries between the close of 
the Old Testament canon and the beginning of the 
Christian era includes that of its Jewish literature." 
This history greatly helps us to appreciate that 



4 PREFACE. 

singular tenacity with which the earliest Christian 
church held to the Mosaic ritual. 

In the treatment of this history we have allowed 
no space for mere opinions or speculations. The 
work is purely historical, and its text is illustrated 
only by that which is pertinent and well authenti- 
cated, in either geographic or archaeological dis- 
covery. 

The entire subject matter is divided into Periods 
and chapters and subdivided into sections and para- 
graphs, the latter presented in such a form as gen- 
erally to suggest to the teacher the question and to 
the reader the topic of the paragraph. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PERIOD I. 

THE ANTE-DILUVIAN ERA. 

CHAPTER I. 
Creation, Eden: Chronology and its Sources 9 

CHAPTER n. 

The Significance of Names 17 

CHAPTER HI. 
The Descendants of Adam 19 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Lineage of the Patriarchs 22 

CHAPTER V. 

The Flood 25 



PERIOD II. 

THE PATRIARCHAL ERA AFTER THE FLOOD TO THE 
DEATH OF JACOB. 

CHAPTER I. 

The Two Ararats. The Sons of Japheth ._ 27 

CHAPTER II. 

The Sons of Ham. Their More Recent Names 33 

CHAPTER III. 

The Descendants of Shera. Job 42 



6 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Confusion of Tongues 46 

CHAPTER V. 

The History of Abram and his Times 50 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Patriarchs Isaac and Jacob 6g 

CHAPTER VII. 

Egyptian Testimonies 76 

PERIOD III. 

THE THEOCRACY TO THE JUDGES. 
CHAPTER I. 

The Israelites in Egypt 80 

CHAPTER II. 

The Physical Geography of Sinai and the Desert 86 

CHAPTER III. 
The Entrance into Canaan 91 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Battles of the Conquest 102 

CHAPTER V. 

The Introduction of Idolatry i 112 

PERIOD IV. 

THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES. 
CHAPTER I. 

The Nature of the Office. The Chronology 115 

CHAPTER II. 
The Scribes of the Age 121 



CONTENTS. 7 

PERIOD V. 

THE PERIOD OF THE KINGS TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

CHAPTER I. 
Origin of the Monarchy. Reign of Saul 124 

CHAPTER II. 

The Reigns of David and of Solomon 135 

CHAPTER III. 

The Division of the Kingdom 140 

CHAPTER IV. 

Analysis of the Reigns of Judah and Israel 148 

CHAPTER V. 

The Institution of the Prophetical Office 154 

PERIOD VI. 

THE CAPTIVITY OF JUDAH TO THE CLOSE OF THE 
CANONICAL PERIOD. 

CHAPTER I. 

The Various Captivities 158 

CHAPTER II. 

The Comparative Religious Spirit 164 

CHAPTER III. 

The Captivity Ended 172 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Canonical Books. Samaritan Pentateuch 184 

CHAPTER V. 
What Was Scripture? The Septuagint 194 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Origin of the Talmud 207 

CHAPTER VII. 

Concluding Remarks 215 



8 CONTENTS. 

PERIOD VII. 

THE NEW TESTAMENT ERA. 

CHAPTER I. 

From the Birth of Christ to his Public Ministry 220 

CHAPTER II. 
The Public Ministry of our Saviour 233 

CHAPTER III. 

From the First Passover to the Second 237 

CHAPTER IV. 

From the Second Passover to the Third 244 

CHAPTER V. 

The Third Passover 253 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Beginning of the Christian Church 268 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Gospel for Gentiles as well as Jews. Paul's First Mission 280 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Second and Third Missionary Tours of Paul 293 

CHAPTER IX. 
Paul at Rome. The Seven Churches. Colosse and Hierapolis 305 



BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



PERIOD I. 

THE AHTEmDILUYIAH EM. 



CHAPTER I. 

CREATION: CHRONOLOGY AND ITS SOURCES. 

1. The first book of the Bible, which is Gene- 
sis, begins with a history of the Creation. The 
words '' In the beginning/' with which it opens, give 
us no chronological data by which we are able to 
form any estimate of the time. Seven divisions, 
called '' days," have special appointments assigned to 
each in that which is usually called ''the work of 
creation," including the appointment of a day of 
rest. 

Before the beginning of the days there exist- 
ed a state of chaos, the earth being '' without form 
and void" and darkness being upon the face of the 
waters. 

The first act was the calling into being Light. 



lO BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

The appointment of Day and Night closed the work 
of the first day. 

The separation of the waters beneath ''the firma- 
ment," or expanse, from those above ''the firma- 
ment '' constituted the work of the second day. 

The formation of dry land, called earth, and the 
appearance of vegetable growth, called grass, herbs, 
and trees, occurred on the third day. 

On the fourth day lights appeared in " the firma- 
ment," or expanse, and on the fifth day the first ani- 
mal life moved in the waters and birds in the air, 
the latter called "winged fowl." On the sixth day 
the earth brought forth living creatures, "cattle, 
creeping things, and beasts ;" and finally man was 
created, made after God's image, with dominion over 
all that had been here created. 

The seventh day was set apart as a day of rest, a 
day of which it is said, "God blessed the seventh 
day and sanctified it." Gen. 2:3. 

3. After the creation of man he was placed 
in a garden which the Lord God planted " eastward 
in Eden." The locality of Eden is unsettled, but 
the opinion of many scholars is that it is not far off 
from the head of the Persian Gulf. The garden is 
described as " eastward in Eden," and it is supposed 
to have been in the eastern part of a district called 
Eden. Prof. Sayce derives Eden from an ancient 
word meaning "the desert." If this be correct, the 
garden of Eden was more remarkable for its contrast 
with the great Syrian desert in its immediate vicin- 



CREATION: CHRONOLOGY AND ITS SOURCES. II 

ity. The rivers mentioned by name are Pison, Gi- 
hon, Hiddekel, and Euphrates. The Euphrates at 
the present day joins the ancient Hiddekel, which is 
now called the Tigris, at a point one hundred miles 
northwest from the Persian Gulf, and the stream 
formed by the union of the two rivers is called the 
Shat el-Arab, The Pison and Gihon have not been 
satisfactorily identified. 

It should be remembered that the geographical 
condition of this region is very unlike that which 
existed at the time we are considering. Dr. De- 
litzsch calculates that a delta of between forty and 
fifty miles in length has been formed since the sixth 
century B. C. Prof. Sayce says that in the time of 
Alexander, B. C. 323, the Tigris and Euphrates 
flowed, by different mouths, into the sea (gulf), as 
did also the Eulaeus, or modern Karun, in the Assy- 
rian epoch."^ 

The increment of land about the delta has been 
found to be a mile in thirty years, which is about 
double the increase of any other delta, owing to the 
nature of the soil over which the rivers pass.f Under 
these changes it is probable that any but very large 
streams might disappear. 

3, The Euphrates passes along a course of 
more than 1,780 miles from the head-waters of the 
Mourad ChaiX and for about 700 miles it passes 
through a nearly level country on the east of the 

* '' Ancient Empires of the East," p. 95. Pliny, N. H., VI. 130. 

t " Lippincott's Gazetteer," 1881. 

X Pronounced Moo-rad'-chi {chi as in China), 



12 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

great Syrian desert. It varies in depth from eight to 
twenty feet to its junction with the Tigris ; after its 
union with the Tigris its depth increases. It is nav- 
igable for about 700 miles or more from the Persian 
Gulf. 

The Tigris is shorter, being about 1,150 miles in 
length, and navigable for rafts for 300 miles. Some 
of the extreme head-sources of this river approach 
those of the Euphrates within the distance of two 
or three miles. The name Hiddekel is the same 
word as Hidiglat, which is its name in the Assyrian 
inscriptions, as Purat is the ancient Assyrian for 
Perath in Hebrew."^ 

The land of Havilah, which was encompassed 
entirely by the river Pison, is unknown, but the 
'' Ethiopia " encompassed by the river Gihon is in 
the Hebrew called Cush, and recent discoveries have 
proved that in very early times Cushite people in- 
habited a part of the region near the head of the 
Persian Gulf. 

There is little doubt that the land so called was 
a part of the plain of Babylonia where the cities of 
Nimrod were planted, Gen. 10: 10, Nimrod being a 
son of Cush. 

These discoveries show that, in after ages, the 
Cushites left Babylonia and emigrated southward 
along the Persian Gulf into Arabia, of which they 
occupied a very large part, and from its southern 
part crossed over to Africa to the country which in 

^'- Geikie, Vol. I., p. io8. - 



CREATION: CHRONOLOGY AND ITS SOURCES. I 3 

after times was called by the Greek geographers 
Ethiopia. 

Dr. F. Delitzsch supposes that Havilah was the 
district lying west of the Euphrates and reaching to 
the Persian Gulf, and that the Cush of the text was 
the land adjoining on the east, having the present 
Shat el-Nil for its border line. The long stream west 
of the Euphrates, which was known to the Greeks as 
Pallacopas, Dr. Delitzsch considers as the Pison, and 
the Shat el-Nil as the Gihon (see the map). The 
Garden of Eden he places at that part where the 
Euphrates and Tigris approach each other very 
nearly, being at that place only twenty-five miles 
apart."^ 

4. In the Garden of Eden the Lord God put 
the first pair. Of the man it is said that he was 
placed in the garden ''to dress it and to keep it;" 
and of the woman, that she should be '' a help meet 
for him." How long this state of things continued 
is not related, but, through the serpent, temptation 
entered into the mind of Eve, and she gave of the 
forbidden fruit unto her husband and they did eat, 
**and their eyes were opened," apparently to the 
sense of guilt in violating the command which for- 
bade them to '' eat of the tree of the knowledge of 
good and evil." The curse then followed, and they 
were driven out from the garden, to which they were 
never to return. 

5, After the expulsion Cain and Abel were 

- " Wo lag das Paradies V Dr. Delitzsch. 



14 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

born, and the first murder took place in the killing 
of Abel by Cain, the latter being punished by being 
driven out ''from the presence of the Lord." Cain 
went eastward and dwelt in the land of Nod, and 
his first-born son, Enoch, built the first city, which 
was named after him, Enoch. Neither the land of 
Nod nor the city Enoch has been certainly located. 

6. We now have an account of the descendants 
of Adam, with the statement of their several ages. 
Upon this statement of ages a chronology has been 
based, usually called the Biblical Chronology. It is 
derived from that account which is recorded in the 
Hebrew, the language in which the history was orig- 
inally written. But there is another account which 
was given in the earliest extant translation of the 
Hebrew history, and this is called the Septuagint 
Greek, made about 286 B. C; and the chronology of 
this old translation differs materially from^ the He- 
brew original. There is yet another authority, the 
Samaritan Pentateuch, the manuscript of which is 
kept at Shechem, in Palestine, and is the oldest 
known manuscript of the Bible in the world, hav- 
ing been written before the Captivity and in the 
old Hebrew letters."^ 

These are the only three records of any import- 
ance, and the variations in these records are seen in 
the following table :f 

* Of this manuscript we shall give a description hereafter, as also of 
the Septuagint. 

t Schumann's ^' Commentary on Genesis." 



CREATION: CHRONOLOGY AND ITS SOURCES. 



15 



Adam 

Seth 

Enos 

Cainan 

Mahalaleel 

Jared 

Enoch 

Methuselah 

Another translation of 

tuagint 

Lamech 

Noah 



Sep- 



Lived before 
birth of sons. 



HEB. 

130 

105 

90 

70 

65 
162 

65 

187 



182 
500 



62 

65 
67 



53 



SEP. 
230 
205 
190 
170 
165 

162 
165 
187 

167 

165 

188 



After birth of 
sons. 



HEB 

800 

807 

815 
840 
830 
800 
300 
782 



595 



785 
300 

653 



600 



SEP. 
700 
707 

715 
740 

730 
800 
200 
782 
802 

565 



Total. 



930 
912 

905 
910 

895 
962 

365 
969 



777 



847 
720 



653 



962 
969 

753 



It will be seen by the above table that the He- 
brew text affords data which give us 1,656 years 
from the creation of Adam to the Flood, for we must 
add 100 to Noah's age of 500, since the Flood began 
when Noah was 600 years old (Gen. 7 : 6). The Sa- 
maritan text takes away 100 years from the life of 
Jared, 120 from that of Methuselah, and 129 from 
that of Lamech, as compared with the Hebrew text, 
making the Flood occur 1,307 after Adam's creation, 
while the Septuagint adds 100 to the lives of each of 
the first five and to that of Enoch, and six to that of 
Lamech, making the Flood begin 2,262 years after 
the creation of Adam, according to one reading of 
the Septuagint, or 2,242 according to another. 

So that the aggregates of time from the Creation 
to the Flood, as deduced from the Hebrew, the Sa- 
maritan, and the Septuagint, severally are 1,656, 
1,307, and 2,262. The Samaritan is the oldest man- 
uscript, but it cannot be made certain that the dates 
as given in that manuscript have suffered no alter- 



l6 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

ation ; and hence the Hebrew account has been 
followed in our entire English version, the chronol- 
ogy of which was arranged by Archbishop Ussher 
(usually written Usher), A. D. 1580,^ but it ''is of 
no inspired authority and of great uncertainty/' 

7. The subject of Biblical Chronology, as de- 
rived from data recorded in the Scripture, is neces- 
sarily unsettled ; and this is so partly becausef the 
sacred writers speak of descendants of a given pro. 
genitor as his sons, in accordance with Eastern cus- 
tom, and partly perhaps from the use of letters, 
for figures, in the early manuscripts,:}: which have 
suffered changes in subsequent transcriptions. But 
although these variations occur, discoveries connect- 
ed with the remains of other nations than the Jew- 
ish, and connected with other histories than the Jew- 
ish, are beginning to throw light upon the Scripture 
history and chronology. 

These collateral histories allude to persons and 
events of Jewish history and afford such data that 
in many instances we can determine from them the 
actual year of Scripture events. This aid is particu^ 
larly important as derived from both Assyrian and 
Egyptian discoveries, and this we shall have reason 
hereafter to show. 

* Schaff's *' Bible Dictionary," p. 184. 

t Translation of Society of Biblical Archaeology, Vol. IV., p. 315. 

t Eichhorn's *' Einleitung," Vol. I., p. 90. Geikie, Vol. I., p. S^. 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NAMES. 1 7 



CHAPTER II. 

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NAMES. 

1, In the earliest periods of human history 
names, either for persons, places, or things, had 
meanings which were in some sense applicable to 
the person, place, or thing named. This was spe- 
cially true in Hebrew history, and of this we have 
already had illustrations ; for w^hen Eve was brought 
to Adam '*he called her name woman, because she 
was taken out of man," but afterwards, because Eve 
in the Hebrew meant life, he '' called his wife's name 
Eve, because she was the mother of all living." 

Adam's name denoted his relation to the ground 
(Hebrew, AdamaJi), from the dust of which he was 
taken ; and as Eve's body was derived from that of 
Adam, the name of the two was Adam (Gen. 5 : 2), 
which was the name given by God ''in the day when 
they were created," and this name was exclusively 
the description of the first man and the first woman. 

In Gen. 2:23 we have the generic name given to 
the race in the Hebrew terms '' Ish'' and '' Ishah'' for 
''man" and "woman," given by Adam to himself 
and to the woman : " This is now bone of my bones 
and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman 
(Ishah), because she was taken out of man (Ish)." 

3. Tlie root, or primitive meaning, of Ish is un- 

Biblical History and Geography. 2 



l8 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

certain, but from its subsequent use we may infer 
that it denoted a characteristic of humanity higher 
than that expressed by the word Adam, and may 
have occurred to the father of men while naming 
the animals as an appellative distinguishing his own 
from the inferior order of the animate creation.^ 

It is remarkable that the ancient Assyrian name 
for the first man is Admu or Adamu, the Assyrian 
form of the Hebrew Adam.f 

3. Ill the Hebrew history, therefore, names 
are not to be regarded as mere sounds or combina- 
tions of sounds, attached at random to certain objects 
or persons, so as to become the audible signs by 
which we distinguish them from each other, but 
very frequently proper names had a deeper meaning 
and were more closely connected in men's thoughts 
with character and condition than among any other 
ancient nation with the history and literature of 
which we are acquainted. :]: Thus it is that, as Arch- 
bishop Trench says, words are often the repositories 
of historical information. § 

* W. F. Wilkinson, '' Personal Names in the Bible," p. lo. 

t Delitzsch, " Chaldaean Genealogy," p. 304. 

J Wilkinson, p. 15. 

§ Trench, "Study of Words." 



THE DESCENDANTS OF ADAM. I9 

CHAPTER III. 

THE DESCENDANTS OF ADAM. 

1. As the history proceeds it becomes very 
plain that the descendants of Adam are selected 
with a purpose, which a general acquaintance with 
Scripture reveals. That purpose was to record the 
ancestry of Abraham and so of the children of Israel. 
Other descendants are occasionally mentioned when 
any interesting or important event suggests itself to 
the historian, but the main purpose is never lost 
sight of. 

Thus the descendants of Cain are briefly enumer- 
ated through his first-born, Enoch, ''the teacher," as 
his name signifies. He was the first builder of a 
city, and may, as Geikie suggests, have been the first 
to teach men ''the culture of city life," or "the ele- 
ments of physical life." 

2. His descendants were Irad, "the swift one," 
perhaps because of his hunter's life ; Mehujael, " the 
stricken of God," for some unrecorded transgression ; 
Methusael, probably bearing the name God in the 
syllable "el," and meaning "champion of God," sug- 
gesting some religious act; as if, even among the 
race of Cain, God " had not left himself without a 
witness."*^ 

3. But we find Lamech, "a wild man," who first 

* Geikie. 



20 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

introduces polygamy, for ever hereafter to be 
associated in origin with the race of Cain. One of 
his two wives was named Adah, a Hebrew term for 
*' ornament," and is found in the compounds Adaiah, 
"whom Jehovah adorns,'' and Maadiah, ''ornament 
from Jehovah.'' There must have been a personal 
attraction which made the name appropriate. 

4, In the other wife's name, Zillah, it has been 
supposed that the termination ''ah" has reference 
to the name of Jehovah ; it is more probable, how- 
ever, that the meaning is confined to the root of 
this word, which signifies ^'a shade." To her son, 
Tubal-Cain, we are indebted for the first work in 
copper and iron, as the sentence "instructor of every 
artificer in brass and iron " means. Perhaps we may 
say "bronze" for "brass," since brass is a compound 
of zinc and copper, and bronze is a compound of tin 
and copper, and the latter has been discovered in 
the most ancient ruins, which has not been true as 
to brass. Brass, however, is used in Scripture in 
some instances as the name for copper."^ Chisels 
have been taken from ruins in Egypt containing 
copper 94 per cent., tin 5.9, and iron o.i ; and a bowl 
from Nimrud, about twenty miles south of Nineveh, 
was composed of copper 89.57 per cent., and of tin 

* Copper is as abundant now as then. There is quite a trade in 
copper between Bagdad and Bassora near the head of the Persian Gulf. 
All household utensils are made of copper. When Xenophon arrived 
with his Ten Thousand, B. C. 400, in this region (in his time it was called 
the land of the Carduchi) he was astonished at the quantity of metallic 
utensils. Lenormant, "Ancient History of the East," Vol. II., p. 203. 



THE DESCENDANTS OF ADAM. 21 

10.43. I^ the sepulchral furniture with which the 
oldest of the Chaldaean tombs were filled we already 
find more bronze than copper.^ The excavations at 
Warka, the ancient Erech of Gen. 10: 10, ninety-five 
miles southeast of Babylon, seem to prove that the 
ancient Chaldaeans made use of iron before the 
Egyptians.f 

5. The name given to Jabal, the son of Adah, 
suggests that he led a pastoral life with his cattle. 
His name means ''wanderer," and hence he was very 
appropriately ''the father of such as dwell in tents.'' 
"His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father 
of all such as handle the harp and organ ;" the latter 
name suggesting some wind instrument or pipe. His 
name significantly means "the player." 

6. To this list of " first things " may be added the 
first instance of poetical utterance, for the ad- 
dress of Lamech to his wives is in the form of the 
earliest Hebrew poetry. Gen. 4:23. 

Adah and Zillah, hear my voice, 
Wives of Lamech, hear my speech. 
I have slain a man for wounding me, 
A young man for hurting me. 
If Cain shall be avenged seven-fold, 
Surely Lamech seventy-and-seven. 

With this ends the history of the descendants of 
Cain. The history of those descendants of Adam 
through whom the children of Israel traced their 
lineage is begun in the fifth chapter of Genesis. 

* Rawlinson, " The Five Great Monarchies," Vol. I., p. 98. 
t Perrot & Chipiez, '' Art in Chaldaea." 



BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE LINEAGE OF THE PATRIARCHS. 

1. Ten generations are given, from Adam to 
the Flood, and the remarkably long lives of the Pa- 
triarchs have suggested to many the probability of 
error or misunderstanding. Some have supposed 
that each name represents a tribe, the lives of whose 
leading members have been added together. Others 
have understood the years to mean only months, 
and others that ntimbers and dates are liable in the 
course of years to become obscured and exagger- 
ated."^ 

2. Bnt as to all these opinions it must be 
remembered, First, that the era from the creation of 
Adam to the Flood, 1,656 years, is to be divided by 
the number ten, the number of the Patriarchs, which 
would require an individual length of life much 
longer than that enjoyed at the present day ; and, 
Secondly, no scientific reasons can be offered why 
human life should be limited in duration to its pres- 
ent length. It varies now according to the contin^ 
gencies of accident and disease, and old age itself 
may be only a modified form of disease and not 
essential to a human organism. A clock made to 
run twenty-four hours is expected to run down in 

■■' See '* Speaker's Commentary," Vol. I., p. 62. Geikie, Vol. I., p. 184. 



THE LINEAGE OF THE PATRIARCHS. 23 

about that time, but the clock-maker may, by adding 
one wheel, or to the length of the weight-cord, or by 
some other very simple rearrangement, make the 
very same clock run a week or a month. It is only 
a question of life, about which, as to its nature, we 
know little or nothing. Thirdly, as to the historic 
probability, it -is a fact that traditions other than 
those of the Hebrew nation represent that in the 
earliest ages there was an enjoyment of exceedingly 
long lives. The chronology of Berosus, a Chaldaean 
priest and historian, B. C. 279 to 255, gives to the ten 
Babylonian kings who in the earliest traditions of 
that people reigned before the Babylonian deluge 
2,221 years, or only 21 years less than the period 
given in the Septuagint as having elapsed between 
the Creation and the Deluge."^ The earliest Aryan 
tradition states that the first man lived 1,000 years 
in Paradise. 

Other nations have kept the same tradition of 
long lives in the earliest times, which nations could 
not have received the tradition from the Scriptures. 

3. But there is a probability arising from the 
fitness of long lives, and that is seen in the neces- 
sity of a history which could thus be obtained by tra- 
dition when no written language existed. It will 
be seen that from Adam to the Flood tradition was 
delivered through only one person, so that Lamech 
could repeat to Noah what Adam had narrated to 
him of all the dealings of God in Eden and after the 

* See Vigouroux and Lenormant, as quoted b}- Geikie, Vol. I., p. 86. 



24 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

expulsion. Although Lamech lived during the life- 
times of all the Patriarchs down to the Flood, which 
took place 1,656 years after the creation of Adam, he 
himself was only ^m years old at death. Thus we 
see that tradition was more trustworthy then than at 
any time since. 

4. Moreover, Shem lived nearly a century before 
the death of Lamech, who could have narrated the 
story of Eden and the trials and experiences of his 
after-life, as well as the history of the Patriarchal 
times, to Shem, who was alive in the times of Abra- 
ham and his son Isaac. By that time writing was 
invented, and doubtless much of the history of the 
times before and after the Flood had been commit- 
ted to writing, which was invented several centuries 
before the death of Shem, as we learn from the an- 
cient Chaldaean records. 

5. After the Flood long lives continued, but in 
much shorter terms, Arphaxad, Salah, and Eber 
each lived about four centuries, and each of the next 
three patriarchs lived over 200 years, and it was not 
till after the time of Judah, seven centuries after the 
Flood, that the length of a human life was reduced 
to about a century. 



THE FLOOD. 25 



CHAPTER V. 

THE FLOOD. 

1. The Scripture statement of the occasion of 
the Flood is very brief. It is made plain, however, 
that the wickedness of men was so great that '' the 
earth was filled with violence and corrupt before God'' 

2. Noah was commanded to prepare an ark for 
his own safety and that of his family ; and he was 
also directed to provide for the preservation of a 
large number of '' fowls, cattle, and creeping things.'* 

3. Between the time of the announcement of the 
divine intention to destroy '' man whom he had crea- 
ted " and the occurrence of the Flood God gave a 
warning era of 120 years, at the close of which the 
Flood began. '* The waters prevailed upon the earth 
150 days.'' After this time they were abated, and 
gradually retired till the earth was dry, and Noah 
and his family left the ark in which he had remained 
twelve months and ten days, or from the six hundred 
and first year, second month, and seventeenth day 
to the six hundred and second year, second month, 
and twenty-seventh day of Noah's life. 

4. An interesting fact may here be stated. A 
few years ago there were discovered by excavations 
at the ancient site of Nineveh, on the Tigris, the 
palace of Assur-bani-pal, in which had been stored 
some 10,000 tablets of a library gathered by this king 



26 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

B. C. 968. These tablets were shipped to the British 
Museum, of which George Smith, the Assyriologist, 
was librarian, and a large number of them transla- 
ted. Among these tablets was found a record of the 
Deluge, which was read by Mr. Smith in December, 
1872, before the Society of Biblical Archaeology in 
London. 

5. The record states that the tradition recorded 
is copied from a more ancient account which was in 
existence in the times of a king of the city of Accad 
(Gen. 10) many years after the time of Nimrod, who 
founded it. The remains of this city have been 
recently discovered forty-three miles north-northwest 
from Babylon. 

The name of the king of Accad was Sargon I., 
whose date appears from the monuments to have 
been about 3800 B. C. This Chaldsean history of the 
Deluge is so similar to that of the Scriptures as to 
leave no doubt that both record the same fact. 

6. The simple narration as it occurs in Gen- 
esis is so free from the irrelevant and unnecessary 
additions of the Chaldaean account as to show that 
the Biblical account is a record of true history. As 
the Chaldaean account is dated long before Abram 
left Chaldaea, and hence long before the birth of 
Moses, it could never have been derived from Scrip- 
ture, and proves that a tradition of such an event as 
that of the Flood must have existed very early in 
the history of the race. 



THE TWO ARARATS. THE SONS OF JAPHETH. 2/ 



PERIOD II. 

THB PATRIARCHAL EM AFTER THE FLOOD 
TO THE DEATH OF JACOB. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE TWO ARARATS. THE SONS OF JAPHETH. 

1. Although the tradition of the Flood seems 
to have reached to almost every nation, it has been 
referred locally to some part of Western Asia, and 
particularly to that part known as Armenia. The 
Scriptures tell us that the ark rested upon ^Hhe 
mountains of Ararat,'' Gen. 8 : 4, not upon any 
particular mountain called Ararat, as it has been 
assumed. 

2. The word Ararat is found in the Assyrian in- 
scriptions for Armenia.^ A mountain 500 miles 
north of Babylon is called Mt. Ararat by travellers, 
and seems first to have been announced as the '' Mt. 
Ararat'' in A. D. 1250, as Bochart says. 

The other claimant is 50 miles north of Nine- 
veh and is called Mt. Kudur, the meaning being 
''the great ship."f This view is supported by older 

* So Schrader in Geikie, Vol. I., p. 208. 

t Osborn's " Manual of Biblical Geography.'* 



28 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

historians, such as Berosus and others. The Mt. 
Ararat of present travellers is a solitary double peak, 
called Mt, Massis by the Armenians, which rises 
17,500 feet above the sea. 

THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES. 

3. The tenth chapter of Genesis is considered one 
of the most remarkable chapters because of the aid it 
affords in tracing the early emigrations and dis- 
tributions of the race. In this chapter the descend- 
ants of the three sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and 
Japheth, are given. The descendants of Shem are 
known among scholars as Shemites or Semites, as 
those of Ham are known as Hamites. Although 
Shem is named first in order, Japheth is called the 
elder (ver. 21), and the genealogy begins with him. 

THE SONS OF JAPHETH : THEIR MORE RECENT NAMES. 

4. {a) Gomer, These were the Cimmerians of 
antiquity, the Cimbri of Roman times, and the Cym- 
ry or Celts still existing. Their ancient country was 
north of the Black Sea, including the Crimea and the 
shores of the Sea of Azov. 

The name Crimea is a corruption of the ancient 
name. It is to this north land Ezekiel refers in chap. 
38 : 2, 6. A part of them went southward to Asia 
Minor when driven out by the Scythians, and some 
emigrated to the west of Europe and to Britain. 
The Welsh call themselves Cymry. '' The sons of 



THE TWO ARARATS. THE SONS OF JAPHETH. 29 

Gomer" were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togar- 

MAH." 

5. Ashkenaz. The name means ''the horse 
milkers/' and suggests some race of a wandering 
tribe of the same general country of the Cimmerians 
or of that land northeast of them. The names Asca- 
niuSj a river and lake in Asia Minor, and Scandia and 
Scandmavia, suggest that they may have entered 
Phrygia, as Bochart supposes, but the associations 
are uncertain. They seem in later times to have in 
some degree returned to a region near Armenia, 
since Jeremiah associates them with Ararat, Jer. 
51:27. 

6. Riphath seems to be suggested by the name 
of the Rhiphaean Mountains in the distant regions 
of the north of Scythia. More probably we may find 
some intimation of their presence near Armenia in 
the name Riphates, which is that of a mountain 
range in that vicinity. 

7. Togarmah is supposed to be represented by 
the tribes of the Caucasus, Georgians and Ar- 
menians, who call themselves ''the House of Tor- 
gona,'' the latter word being the same as Togar- 
mah. 

8. {U) Magog, the name of the second son of 
Japheth, was also the name of a country. Slavonic 
tribes in the north and northeast of Europe are sup- 
posed to be comprehended under this term as de- 
scendants from the grandson of Japheth, and the 
original country of Magog was the Caucasian Moun- 



30 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

tains and the country around the northern part of 
the Caspian Sea. 

9. In the time of the prophet Ezekiel they 
had become a powerful people and had overrun the 
north of Europe. The Russians are, and the Scyth- 
ians were, the descendants of Magog, and Gog is the 
*' prince of Rosh,*' of Meshech, and of Tubal. They 
are described by Ezekiel, chaps. 38: 15 and 39:3, as 
a wild race of mounted men armed with the bow. 
This seems also to describe the Scythians who inva- 
ded Palestine B. C. 625, and left the evidence of their 
presence in the city called Scythopolis, formerly Beth- 
shean, now Beisan, on the Jordan."^ 

10. {c) Madai is the name by which the Medes 
are known on the Assyrian monuments. Their coun- 
try was south of the Caspian Sea. 

11. {d) Javan was the progenitor of the Greeks, 
and the name occurs on the Assyrian monuments as 
Javanu ; a term also used by Darius, the Mede.f 

12. The sons of Javan were: (i.) Elishah, who 
settled in the northwest of Asia Minor from the Pro- 
pontis eastward throughout Mysia and Lydia and the 
adjacent islands. (2.) Tarshish, supposed to be the 
ancestor of the Etruscans who inhabited the north- 
ern part of Italy ; but the name as it occurs in Isa. 
23 :6-io; Ezek. 27 : 12 and 38 : 13, seems to refer to a 
city on the southern coast of Spain whither Jonah 
attempted to escape. Jonah i : 3. (3.) Kittim. This 

* Full references in Bochart's " Geography," pp. 192, 193. 
t Schrader in Geikie, Vol. I., p. 234. 



THE TWO ARARATS. THE SONS OF JAPHETH. 3 1 

name is afterwards spelled Chittim, but it is the 
same word in the Hebrew text. It has the plural 
ending {irn), and therefore refers to a people of that 
name. In Isa. 23 : i, 12, Chittim refers to the island 
of Cyprus ; but when '' the isles of Chittim '' are men- 
tioned, as in Jer. 2:10 and in Ezek. 27 : 6, the phrase 
includes the island of Crete and the islands along 
the coast of Asia Minor and the ^gean Sea, thus 
embracing a great sea district, with probably all 
Greece. In Dan. 1 1 : 30 Chittim includes Macedonia, 
because of its supposed settlement from the former, 
as Bochart shows.^ 

(4.) DODANIM is the same as Rodanim, which is 
also in plural form, and refers to the Greeks of the 
island of Rhodes, which is particularly one of the 
islands of Kittim or Chittim. 

13. The other sons of Japheth were : {e) Tu- 
bal and (/) Meshech and {g) Tiras. Of these Tubal 
and Meshech appear as tribes neighboring with the 
Scythians and other northern tribes, and perhaps 
remained about the southeastern parts of the Black 
Sea. The Tubal of Isa. 66: 19 was, as supposed, in 
Spain ; but a tribe called Tyrrhenians in later times 
settled the islands of Lemnos and Imbros.f The 
name is supposed to be derived from the turreted 
walls by which the early Tyrrhenians surrounded 
their fortifications, and not from Tyre, as some have 
said ; this Bochart shows. Tiras is supposed by some 
to represent ancient Thrace, but this is doubtful, as 

^' Bochart, " Geog. Sac," p. 157. t Ibid., p. 586. 



32 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

the people seem to have been associated with the 
Achaeans, Lydians, Sicilians, and Sardinians fourteen 
centuries B. C, in an invasion of Egypt, as Chabas 
shows.^ They seem in remote antiquity to have 
been seafarers and pirates upon the Italian seas and 
Greek Archipelago.f 

* *• Etudes de V antiquite historique." Paris, 1873. 
t Geikie, p. 234, Vol. I. 



THE SONS OF HAM. 33 



CHAPTER II. 

THE SONS OF HAM. THEIR MORE RECENT NAMES. 

1. {a) Cush was the first mentioned son. Dr. 
Franz Delitzsch has shown that the Assyrian monu- 
ments now prove that Cushites settled in the early 
ages of the world near the northwest of the Persian 
Gulf. They afterwards migrated southward along 
the western shore of the Persian Gulf and onward to 
the south and southwest of Arabia. Some of these 
crossed the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb to Africa, and 
there established themselves in that part now known 
as Abyssinia, and called first by the Greek geogra- 
phers Ethiopia. 

3. The Hebrew name Cush is translated Ethi- 
opia twenty of the twenty-one times it occurs in the 
Scripture. There can be no reasonable doubt that 
in the first mention of the word Ethiopia in Gen. 
2:13 the region northwest of the Persian Gulf is 
meant. In after ages the Cushites had established 
themselves in Arabia, and the inhabitants in that 
region were called Cushites, or as it is in our English 
translation, '' Ethiopians/' as in the case of Moses* 
wife, who is called an '' Ethiopian woman," Num. 
12:1, but it is " Cushite " in the Hebrew. 

The varying meanings of the name Cushite afford 
an indication that all these passages of Scripture 

Biblical History and Geography. 2* 



34 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

could not have been written in the same period of 
time. 

3. The earliest moiiuineiits in Egypt make 
a strong distinction between the Etliiopians south 
of Egypt and the negro races, for although the 
Ethiopians were of a dark or dusky skin, they had 
straight hair, thin noses, and the form of the head 
of different shape. It is not apparent that any ref- 
erence in Scripture is made to the negro race as 
such; the passage in Jer. 13:23, '''Can the Ethiopian 
change his skin f may apply to the dark Ethiopian 
and not to the negro, whose native land was west of 
Ethiopia.*^ 

4. Five races spring from Cush : Seba, Havilah, 
Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtecha. These have gen- 
erally been referred to large tribes settling in Arabia. 
From Raamah we have the nations Sheba and De- 
dan. These have been located in Arabia, and it was 
the queen of the former who visited Solomon, i Kin. 
10: I and 2 Chron. 9:1. Dedan was a district north 
of Sheba, and its inhabitants seem by caravans to 
have traded and settled northward until the time of 
Abraham, Gen. 25:3, when their descendants were 
numerous enough to be known by the old name of 
their ancestors. 

5. Cush begat Nimrod, whose exceptional prow- 
ess and enterprise gave him precedence over all his 
brethren. He was a mighty hunter upon the plains 
of Babylon, and from the monuments of Assyria it 

* Lenormant, Vol. H., "Ancient History of the East," p. 236. 



THE SONS OF HAM. 35 

seems that the lion was the chief object of his hunt- 
ing expeditions. He was the founder of some of the 
earliest cities. The first mentioned is Babel, after- 
wards called Babylon by the Greeks, which was built 
upon the Euphrates. 

6. At that early time this city was about one 
hundred and seventy-five miles northwest from the 
head of the Persian Gulf^ but it is now three hun- 
dred miles, the land having been extended south- 
eastward by the annual deposits brought down by 
the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. Erech, the second 
city of Nimrod, was seventy-five miles northwest 
(now 200) of the same gulf; Accad, recently dis- 
covered by Rassam, was forty-five miles almost due 
north from Babylon ; and Calneh about fifty miles 
southeast of Babylon ; it is now called Niffer, 

'7. The land of Shinar was the district corres- 
ponding with that now known as the land of Chaldcea. 
" Out of that land went forth Asshur and builded 
Nineveh '' is the statement made, and the monu- 
ments recently discovered have remarkably corrobo- 
rated this text, for the history shows the importance 
of Asshur, and that Nineveh, which was the capital 
of the Assyrian kingdom, was a more recent city 
than Babylon.^ ^ Its ruins are two hundred and sev- 

* Some have recently offered a new reading of this text, as follows: 
" From that land he [NimrodJ went into Assyria;" but, beside what has 
been above said, Rosenmuller observes that if this had been the mean- 
ing the Hebrew would have been different. We may add that the Sep- 
tuagint translators understood it as it is in our English version, that it 
was not Nimrod, but Asshur, who built Nineveh. 



36 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

enty-five miles north by west from Babylon and upon 
the Tigris River. 

8. But it will be seen that Asshur was a son of 
Shem, while Nimrod was a son of Ham, and recent 
discovery has sustained the distinction, showing that 
another people preceded the Assyrians and Baby- 
lonians which were not descendants of Shem. In 
connection with Nineveh are mentioned ^^ the city 
Rehoboth ''^ and Calah : the former is not known, 
and the latter is supposed to be at the ruins nearly 
twenty miles south of Nineveh, now called Nimrud, 
and a few miles north of the latter is supposed to be 
the site of Resen, 

Further excavations are needed to attest the accu- 
racy of these identifications. 

9. {U) Mizraini is mentioned as the second son 
of Cush, and is supposed to have colonized Egypt. 
The word is in the dual form and indicates the dou- 
ble land of Egypt, which from the earliest times was 
divided into Upper and Lower Egypt. 

(i.) Mizraim's descendants are Ludim, proba- 
bly simply a name for the Egyptians themselves ; 
they held themselves '' the best of all men,''f and 
they were the same as Libyans or Lubim, 2 Chron. 
12:3; 16:8; Nah. 3 : 9. The Libyans of the most 

* It has been supposed by some that the word " Rehoboth " does not 
refer to a city, but to the " wide street " of Nineveh. The term is used in 
that sense in an inscription of Esar-haddon, in which he says that he 
paraded the heads of two kings of Sidon through (Rehoboth) '* the 
streets " of Nineveh. W. A. I., Vol. I., p. 45 ; in '' History of Esar-had- 
don," Budge, 1881, p. 41. 

t Herodotus, Vol. H., p. 121. 



THE SONS OF HAM. 3/ 

ancient era inhabited the west of the Nile and parts 
near the Mediterranean Sea. They appear of bright 
complexions as represented upon the Egyptian mon- 
uments. 

(2.) '' Anamim and Lehabim and Naphtuhim and 
Pathrusim '' appear to be only names of the people 
of the different settlements along the Nile and not 
distinct races. (3.) The Casluhim have been identi- 
fied with a people settling east of the Delta near the 
Mediterranean coast towards Palestine, and seemed 
to have been of Phoenician origin (Ebers). (4.) Caph- 
TORIM were the earliest settlers on the coast of the 
Delta or on its Mediterranean shore, even before the 
Egyptians occupied that part of Egypt (Ebers). The 
Philistines of Palestine (southwest coast) were de- 
scendants of both Casluhim and Caphtorim. '' Kaft " 
was the Egyptian name of the latter people, who 
early settled in the island of Crete, but also, as we 
have stated, on the seacoast of the Nile, and gradu- 
ally moved through the lands of the Casluhim to 
their final resting-place in Palestine.*^ 

10. Thus the passage in Amos 9 : 7 is explained 
by the discovery that the Philistines came from 
Caphtor (Crete), but they passed through the land of 
the Casluhim. This explains Deut. 2 : 33, wherein 
the inhabitants of Azzah (or Gaza) are called Caphto- 
rim, but more distinctly in Jer. 47 : 4, '' the Philistines, 
the remnant of the country of Caphtor.'' So that the 
Philistines, who came originally from Crete (Caph- 

^ Geikie, Vol. I., p. 247. 



38 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

tor), settled on the Delta coast, and thence passing 
through the land of Casluhim, settled in Philistia, as 
Ebers has shown. "^ 

!!• A migration of the earliest Phoenicians to 
the coasts of the Delta is generally accepted as lead- 
ing to the inveiition of the alphabet, for these 
settlers soon learned the new form of hieroglyphics 
(called the hieratic or priestly form), and afterwards 
improved these signs, as in the Phoenician alphabet. 
The most ancient manuscript in hieratic is referred 
to an age in the third millennium B. C, or perhaps 
about 2500 B. C. In the trading intercourse between 
Egypt and Phoenicia this new form was introduced 
into Phoenicia, where the full alphabetic forms were 
originated. Wise men of that day must have very 
generally adopted the improved letters, and in the 
course of the centuries, but certainly before the time 
of the Exodus, the alphabet on the Phoenician model 
was well formed. De Rouge has shown that the 
Phoenicians adopted these hieratic forms long before 
the Exodus.f 

13. This alphabet must have been known 
to Moses, and perhaps to all the elders of Israel, 
and became that Hebrew alphabet which furnished 
the source of the lettering of the law and its acces- 
sories. 

The similarity between the old Hebrew and the 

* More fully spoken of page 69. 

t The hieratic is written from right to left, as is the Phoenician. See 
Sayce's *' Ancient Empires of the East," Scribner, 1886, p. 84. 



THE SONS OF HAM. 39 

Phoenician letters has been fully shown in the dis- 
coveries of tablets near Tyre and in the Moabite 
stone, so called, which was discovered at some ruins 
east of the Dead Sea, upon the site of the ancient 
Dibon. It is probable therefore that the first ele- 
ments of the alphabetic form of letters were invented 
about this era of the world^s history, when the Phoe- 
nicians began their trading with the races upon the 
shores of Egypt, which we have last mentioned. 

13. The next son of Hani is {c) Phut. The 
hieroglyphics of Egypt represent the nation east of 
the Red Sea and along the northern half of the coast 
as the people of Punt, and this people is supposed to 
be meant by P/iut or FuL They traded in incense 
and turquoise (a blue mineral not so hard as quartz 
but as heavy). They were a wandering tribe of a 
dusky hue, but entirely distinct from the Cushites 
on whose confines they dwelt. 

14. The last mentioned descendant of Ham 
was {d) Canaan. He begat Sidon, the firstborn of 
eleven heads of tribes or nations. Sidon became in 
after centuries the name of the chief city of Phoeni- 
cia. The rest of the descendants of Canaan formed 
the Canaanites. 

15. A very important fact should be noticed 
here. These Canaanites spoke a Shemitic language, 
but they were, as here seen, descendants of Ham 
through Canaan. Recent discoveries show that long 
before their settlement in the land of Canaan they 
are met with first in Southern Arabia, from whence 



40 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

they made their way northward to certain islands in 
the Persian Gulf, their next resting-place being on 
the flat shores of the Persian Gulf at the mouth of 
the Euphrates. They then emigrated to the shores 
of Phoenicia, carrying the name Canaan, or, as they 
pronounced it, Chna, ''the low-lying,** to their new 
inheritance on the shores of Phoenicia. Their asso- 
ciations were Shemitic and their language also, 
although they were by descent Hamitic. 

The temples still standing in the times of the 
Romans upon the islands in the Persian Gulf were 
Phoenician, and the inhabitants claimed to be the 
original stock of the famous race of Palestine.'^ '' Ca- 
naanite ** in after times became the term used to 
signify a merchant or trader, from the habits of the 
people.f 

16. The people of Heth^ another son of Ca- 
naan, became in later times a very powerful nation, 
whose history has only recently been brought to 
light. Their name as Hittites has been found in the 
Egyptian records, from which it is shown that at one 
time, so early as that of Moses, they were sufficiently 
powerful to resist the forces of the king, Rameses II., 
of Egypt. On one of the Egyptian monuments they 
are represented as making a treaty with the Egyp- 
tian monarch which was as favorable to them as to 
him, B. C. 1333 (Brugsch). 

* Bertheau, as quoted by Geikie, Vol. I., p. 251, and Lenormant, Vol. 
II., p. 144. 

t Job 41:6; Prov. 31:24, where the word ** merchant" is Canaanite 
in the Hebrew. 



THE SONS OF HAM. 4 1 

17. Sidon, the city of that name, was early a 
fishing station of the Phoenicians on the coast of the 
Mediterranean west of the Lebanon Mountains, twen- 
ty-two miles north of Tyre. This place, now in 
existence, yet bears the name of the ancient son of 
Canaan. 

18. The Canaanites were '' spread abroad*' over 
what is now known as Palestine, from Sidon to Gaza 
and Gerar, '' as thou goest to Sodom and Gomorrah 
and Admah and Zeboim, even unto Lasha," Gen. 
10: 19. Gaza is well known, being 150 miles south- 
west of Sidon and about two miles from the shore of 
the Mediterranean, and is now a town of 15,000 in- 
habitants. Sodom and Gomorrah are not certainly 
located, being by some supposed to have been at the 
south end of the Dead Sea, but by others at the 
north end. Neither of the remaining names can be 
identified with any known sites. But it is plain that 
the Canaanites occupied the whole of Palestine west 
of the Jordan and as far north as the Lebanon Mount- 
ains, the Arvadites and Hamathites extending be- 
yond them more than 130 miles north of Sidon. 
See the 7nap. 



42 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE DESCENDANTS OF SHEM. JOB. 

1. The descendants of Sliem are next given : 
{a) Elam was north of the Persian Gulf and east of 
the Tigris ; Shushan was its capital in later times. 
(d) AssHUR was the origin of the name Assyria. The 
Assyrian monuments show that Nineveh was built 
after Babylon, and that the Assyrians were a later 
people than the Babylonians and derived their litera- 
ture from them, and also that they were a Shemitic 
nation, (c) Arphaxad was settled north of Assyria 
on the table -land between Oroomiah and Van. 
(d) LuD appears to be represented by Lydia in west- 
ern Asia Minor, though at first it was a wider dis- 
trict, (e) Aram settled in Syria near the Upper 
Euphrates, and as far west as the Upper Lebanon 
Mountains north of Palestine, which we learn from 
the Assyrian inscriptions. The four children of 
Aram are Uz, HuL, Gether, and Mash. Uz is 
thought to be the district east of the Jordan known 
as the Hauran, parts of which are very fertile. This 
was the land of Job, and is reckoned in Arabia by 
Josephus."^ The remaining three names are associa- 
ted with the following lands: first, HuL, with el-Hu- 
leh, a region in Northern Palestine, at the head-waters 

* *' Antiquities," Vol. I., ?6:4. 



THE DESCENDANTS OF SHEM. 43 

of the Jordan ; second, Gether, with the district of 
Ituraea between the waters of the lake el-Hnleh and 
Uz ; third Mash, with a site known as Maisel JebeL 
But these identifications are only probable. 

2. Arphaxad had a son Salah who begat Eber, 
whose descendants were the ancestors of Abraham 
through Peleg, in whose days ''was the earth divi- 
ded." Peleg appears to have settled near the Euphra^ 
tes, since a city named Phaliga once existed at the 
place where the river Chaboras falls into the Euphra- 
tes from the east. 

3. The descendants of Peleg's brother, Jok- 
tan, thirteen in number, seem to have found their 
early settlements in Southern Arabia and as far south 
as Isfor on the southeast coast, which is supposed to 
represent the Sephar of the text, Gen. lo: 30. 

This closes a table which is generally considered 
to be the most important as well as the most ancient 
list of nations in existence. 

THE HISTORY OF JOB. 

4. This history is contained in the book of the 
same name. The author of this book is not known. 
It may have been written by Job himself. The his- 
tory is that apparently of a chief who lived in the 
land of Uz, which was probably in the region we 
have already described. Many think that the land 
of Uz was in Northern Arabia or in Idumaea. 

5. Job, according to one writer (Wamys) was an 
Arabian prince, who is represented as living in his 



44 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

family and enjoying a life of unalloyed prosperity, 
the consequence of his exemplary piety and recti- 
tude. Suddenly the scene changes, and this excel- 
lent man is visited by a series of overwhelming 
calamities, which are the result of a transaction which 
passed in the council of the Most High, into the se- 
cret of which the reader is for the moment admitted, 
as stated in Job i : 8-13. During his affliction Job is 
visited by his friends. Instead of comforting him, 
these friends ascribe his calamities to some great sin, 
for which he is now punished. Job's friends affirm 
that great suffering is a proof of great guilt, and 
exhort him to repent and eonfess,^ Job denies this. 
Job 4:5-31:40. At the close of their dialogue an- 
other and younger friend of the patriarch intervenes 
to modify the view taken by the others. 

6. At length the Lord condescends to interpose 
in the controversy. From the midst of a whirlwind, 
in words of incomparable grandeur and sublimity he 
silences the murmurings of his servant, bidding him 
reflect on the glory of creation and learn the stupend- 
ous power and wisdom of Him whose purposes are 
good, though unexplained, and with whom it is use- 
less for a created being to contend. Thereupon Job 
acknowledges his error, and the whole party are 
convinced of forming false estimates of the Lord's 
administration. Job is restored to prosperity and 
prays for his friends, who are accepted in their offer- 
ing and received back into favor. 

* Maclear, p. 24. 



THE DESCENDANTS OF SHEM. 45 

7. The book of Job, from internal evidence, is 
probably one of the earliest productions of Biblical 
literature. The names of his friends, the Temanite 
and the Shuhite, and the mention of the Sabaeans, 
indicate the Idumsean parts of Northern Arabia as 
the scene of the history. The long life of Job, which 
appears to have been about 200 years, indicates a 
period in the second or third century following the 
Flood, or before the time of Abraham. But neither 
the date of the composition nor the location of Uz 
can be settled any further than we have already 
stated. 

One of the proofs of the very early origin of this 
composition is found in its reference to the ancient 
seal, Job 38 : 14, which was rolled over the clay, cov- 
ering it with figures ; hence the illustration used in 
the above passage. The cylindrical seals were used 
in the early Babylonian era. 



46 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES. 

1. The next subject which is presented in the 
sacred text is the confusion of tongues at the 

building of the tower of Babel, Gen. ii:i-io. In 
this passage of the Scripture history we have an 
extremely condensed view of an event which must 
have been one of greater importance than would 
appear from the very concise manner in which it is 
described. All that we know from Scripture is that 
a certain part of the human race coming from the 
East settled upon the plains of Shinar, and there 
began the erection of the highest known tower, with 
the purpose of making themselves a name before 
they were *' scattered abroad upon the face of the 
whole earth.'* They began the tower, using brick 
from the clay which abounds upon the plain of Baby- 
lon and bitumen, called '' slime '* in the text, for mor- 
tar. During the building of this city and tower their 
language, which up to this period was the same, 
became confused, so that, being unable to understand 
each other, they were forced to desist, '' and they left 
off to build the city.'' This is the brief history. 

2. From the recently discovered Assyrian his- 
tory, recorded upon the tablets now in the British 
Museum, it appears that the Babylonians of the ear- 



THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES. 4/ 

liest ages had a tradition of this tower and of the 
sudden confusion of tongues. The event seems to 
indicate that the determination of the early descend- 
ants of Noah, probably under Nimrod or his immedi- 
ate successors, was to settle on the plains and build a 
vast metropolis and a tower, whose height should 
serve the double purpose of a means of direction or 
as a guide to the city, and also of an advertisement 
of their immense wealth and enterprise amid the 
surroimding tribes. 

3. The divine intention was, however, that the 
command given to Noah and his descendants, that 
they should replenish the earth, should be literally 
executed, and it was the divine intervention which 
prevented all the people from remaining in that 
land. 

As we have said, the word Babel in the Greek 
form is Babylon ; but the word which originally 
meant " confusion '' in the Hebrew seems to have 
been changed from that form originally given it into 
Bab, or '' gate,'* el, of "- God," for the actual original 
Hebrew word for ''confusion,'' as Buxtorf shows 
from the Rabbinical word for '' confusion," is Bilbal, 
or Bilbul. Oppert"^ has shown that the word is dis- 
tinctly of Assyrian derivation, from Balal, to '' con- 
found." Similar changes from original forms have 
frequently occurred. Thus Beth-lehem is now Beit- 
lahm the former meaning '' house of bread," and the 

* Oppert, "Journal Asiatique," Vol. X., p. 220; Vol. IX., p. 503. 
Lenormant, "Langue Primitive de la Clialdee," p. 355. Geikie, Vol. I., 
p. 291. 



48 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

latter ^' house of meat/' Borsippa, the name of the 
ruined tower near Babylon, supposed to be the Tow- 
er of Babel, is now called Bar-Sab, the former (Bor- 
sippa) meaning the '' tower of languages," the latter 
(Bar Sab) meaning the ''shattered altar," as Geikie 
has mentioned. 

4. In studying the early parts of Biblical history 
the student should be mindful that history and tra- 
ditions as recorded by the Assyrians were borrowed, 
or, more truly speaking, derived, from the early rec- 
ords of the Babylonian and Chaldsean nations, as in 
some cases is stated upon Assyrian tablets. This 
fact we have illustrated, page 26. The original rec- 
ords w^ere kept at the old Chaldaean city of Erech, 90 
miles southeast of Babylon, at the present ruins of 
Warka. Assur-bani-pal, the Assyrian king, beside 
being a great warrior, was also one who encouraged 
literature and had an immense library, for those 
days, 10,000 tablets from which were removed to the 
British Museum. In his time, 668-647 B. C, the an- 
cient Chaldean tongue was translated into Assyrian, 
and in this library at Nineveh was a lexicon of the 
Chaldseo-Turanian language with the meaning of 
the words put in Assyrian cuneiform.'^ This showed 
that so many years had passed that the ancient Chal- 
daean language was, at that time, nearly lost. 

5. Those records^ both of the Chaldsean and of 
the later Assyrian ages, have not only been of great 
service to the student of ancient history, but they 

•'•■ Lenormant, *' Ancient History of the East," p. 445. 



THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES. 49 

have added much to the explanation and corrobora- 
tion of Biblical history, as we shall hereafter have oc- 
casion to show. 

6. The ruins of both Nineveh and Babylon bear 
some names which are reminiscences of Nimrod, 
but these seem to have been applied at some compar- 
atively recent date. The chief structure bearing the 
name of Nimrod is the Birs Nimrud, or Tower of 
Nimrod, ten miles southwest of the modern town of 
Hillah, which is near the ruins of Babylon. The 
large mass of burned brick at this place seems to have 
been originally erected in the form of a steep pyramid 
some six hundred feet in height and of the same 
length at its base. It is extremely ancient, as its As- 
syrian name proves, which name, Saggatu, '' the high 
temple," is an old Accadian word. 

7. Nebuchadnezzar, B. C. 604-562, one of the 
greatest builders among the Babylonian kings, says 
of himself that he builded additions to it, although 
Tiglath-pileser repaired it one hundred years before. 
It is now a bare hill of yellow sand and bricks a few 
miles west of the banks of the Euphrates, reaching 
a height of about 200 feet, a vast mass of brick-work 
jutting from the mound to a further height of 37 
feet. It is very probable that these are the most an- 
cient remains to be found in Babylonia, and in its 
form seems to have furnished a universal model for 
all succeeding temples and towers in that region.^ 

* Geikie, Vol. I., p. 274. 

Biblical History and Geop:raphy, '2 



50 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE HISTORY OF ABRAM AND HIS TIMES. 

1. The promise that in his seed should all the na- 
tions of the earth be blessed renders the history of 
Abram one of great interest, especially as recent dis- 
coveries of the monuments and literature of ancient 
Chaldaea have given us more correct knowledge of 
those early ages than had been acquired for more 
than 3,000 years. In the eleventh chapter of Genesis, 
beginning at the tenth verse, is given the ancestry 
of Abraham, the father of the Hebrews. Abram, 
afterward called Abraham, for reasons stated in chap- 
ter 17:5, was the ninth from Shem. Until the birth 
of Abram his ancestors appear to have lived in the 
region known as Chaldasa. Abram 's birthplace was 
Ur, 1 50 miles southeast of Babylon and a few miles 
west of the Euphrates. The ruins of Ur include, at 
the present day, a part of an ancient temple dedicated 
to the moon. This temple seems to have been erect- 
ed many years before the days of Abram. A vast 
number of tombs surround it and the city, in the 
times of Abram, must have been a place for burial 
and considered sacred. Eupolemus, a Greek writer 
who is quoted by Eusebius, speaks of it in his time, 
about 446 B. C., as '' the place of the Chaldees." ^ Its 

•'■ *' Proep. Evang.," IX., 17. Geikie, Vol. I., p. 295. 



THE HISTORY OF ABRAM AND HIS TIiMES. 5 1 

ruins on a vast mound are so largely cemented with 
bitumen that this fact has given rise to its present 
name, Mugheir, which means '' bitumen/' The tab- 
lets and bricks bear the ancient name of Ur as well 
as the names of its earliest kings and the builder of 
its temples. 

2. Although at the present day the Persian Gulf 
is about 140 miles distant from Ur, only the deposits 
from the rivers Euphrates and Tigris have removed 
the waters of the gulf to this distance. Certain coast 
marks show that the sea must have sent its waters 
up the river to a distance of nearly, if not quite, 124 
miles, and in the time of Abram Ur must have been 
a maritime city. 

3. From this city Terah, Abram's father, re- 
moved with his family to Haran. This city was 580 
miles northwest of Ur on the banks of a small tribu- 
tary stream which runs seventy miles southward be- 
fore it joins the Euphrates. Both Ur and Haran were 
the seats of the Moon-god, called '' Sin " in the Chal- 
dee language. This deity was masculine in the same 
language and the Sun-god was feminine, as is appar- 
ent from the omens of that day as seen in the follow- 
ing translations of certain priestly utterances and di- 
rections by Prof. Sayce.* 

Of the month Elul it is said : He shall make his 
free-will offering to the Sun, the mistress of the 
world, and to the Moon, the supreme god. . . . The 

* A. H. Sayce in the '' Hibbert Lectures," 1887. See also in " Old 
Testament Student," 1887, p. 134. 



52 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

fifteenth day is sacred to the Sun, the Lady of the 
House of Heaven. . . . The Moon the Lord of the 
month. 

4. Ill this age we read that the seventh day was 
''a day of rest/' and the very ancient name for '' rest '* 
was very similar to the word Sabbath used in the 
Hebrew, and special observance of the day was or- 
dered by the priests ; thus '' the shepherd of mighty 
nations (king) must not eat flesh cooked on the fire 
or in the smoke. He must not drive a chariot. He 
must not issue royal decrees ; the lifting up of his 
hands finds favor with the god,'' etc."^ 

5. It is plain tlierefore that the seventh day 
was a day of rest, a sacred day, in the time of ancient 
Babylonish kings. It was so in the era of earliest 
Chaldaean records, and it was not an institution de- 
rived only from the Jewish nation, but the day was 
regarded as a Sabbath among the Chaldaeans in the 
time and long before the days of Abram, for the 
records above translated and preserved in the library 
of Assur-bani-pal, King of Assyria, as we have said, 
page 26, were derived from far more ancient records, 
existing even before the Deluge, of which latter event 
they give a history. So that the Chaldaean records 
of the Creation, the Deluge, and the Sabbath may 
very reasonably have been derived from one and the 
same source. 

6. The name Abram is of Babylonish-Assyrian 
derivation, but was changed by the Lord into Abra- 

* Sayce, translation as referred to in previous note. 



• THE HISTORY OF ABRAM AND HIS TIMES. 53 

ham, which was a purely Hebrew name, as is record- 
ed in Gen. 17: 5."^ 

7. It is not stated how long Terah remained 
in Ur after the birth of Abram, Nahor, and Haran, 
but the removal was not made until Lot was born to 
Haran and until the death of tlie latter. Then Terah 
left Ur for Haran, six hundred miles northwest, 
where they remained probably many years (see Gen. 
12:5). 

8. The fact that Ahram's name occurs first 
in the mention of the three is no proof, judging from 
the Scripture method of naming sons, that Abram 
was the oldest, but only that he was the most im- 
portant character, for Shem is mentioned first in the 
three Shem, Ham, and Japheth, although Japheth is 
called the elder. Gen. 10: 21, Shem being the most 
important as the head of the Hebrew race. 

Abram was probably born when Terah was 130 
years old, for it must be remembered that there is no 
good reason for supposing that the three sons of 
Terah were born in the same year, but only that one 
of the three mentioned (Gen. 1 1 : 26) was born when 
Terah was 70 years of age and the two others at 
some time after. If Abram was born when Terah 
was 130 and lived to be 75 years old at the death of 
his father, his father's age would have been 205 as 
given in the text. It seems that Haran was the elder 
of the three, though mentioned last as in the case of 
Noah's three sons. 

* See Herzog, article *'Ur." 



54 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

9. Abram, at the call of the Lord, left with a 
large retinue of servants and crossed the Euphrates 
and came into Canaan, probably by the way of Da- 
mascus. He immediately entered into the land 
known then as Canaan, and the first place named on 
his way is ''Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh." Si- 
chem is the place also called Shechem, and the word 
Sichem is in the Hebrew precisely the same as She- 
chem, the variation being one due only to the trans- 
lator of the Hebrew name into English. 

10. Shecliem is almost exactly half way between 
Dan on the north and Beersheba on the south. It 
was therefore not till Abram arrived in the midst 
of the land that he erected an altar to Jehovah after 
the Lord had promised that to his seed He would give 
this land, Gen. 12: 7. Various tribes of Canaanites 
occupied the whole future land of Israel, Gen. 10: 19. 

11. The plain of Moreh was a mile east of the 
city, or town, of Shechem. It is evident that both 
Moreh and Shechem were names of Canaanites, as 
Shechem is seen in Gen. 33 ; 34; Num. 26: 31 ; Josh. 
17: 2, and other places, as a personal name. 

13. The word translated "plain'' is equally appli- 
cable to a grove of trees, and it may be that Abram 
chose this grove as a shelter from the heat. Twenty- 
seven miles north of Shechem is probably the hill 
called in Judg. 7:1, after the same person, the hill 
of Moreh. The city of Shochen, which exists at the 
present time, is between the high hills of Gerizim 
on the south and Ebal on the north. 



THE HISTORY OF ABRAM AND HIS TIMES. 55 

For the reasons why the word '' plain '' should 
be rendered ''oak" see Josh. 24:26 and Judg. 9:6, 
wherein it is evident that a pillar by the oak is meant. 
Also see that the word '' oak " is in the Hebrew ex- 
actly the same as that translated '' plain '* in the text 
referred to above, Gen. 12:6, and this identical oak 
seems to have been used for an important purpose 
many years after. In Deut. 1 1 : 30 the name is in 
the plural, leading us to suppose that it was a grove 
continuing through many centuries. Groves always 
were important and sometimes sacred, as it appears 
from the action of Abraham, for in Gen. 21 : 33 it is 
stated that " Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba 
and called there on the name of the Lord, the ever- 
lasting God.** 

13. The next place visited by Abram was an 
unknown place between Bethel and Hai.^ Bethel 
was not so named until 160 years afterwards, by Ja- 
cob, Gen. 28 : 19. Hai and Aif are the same, and 
this place was probably a Canaanitish town at this 
time. The distance south of Shechem was 20 miles 
to the place occupied by the patriarch, where he 
seems to have remained only to build an altar and 
then moved on, evidently seeking pasture for his 
flocks and herds. 

EGYPT FIRST MENTIONED. 

14. The name of Egypt occurs now for the first 
time in Scripture, and we may judge of its import- 

* Pronounced ha'-i. f Pronounced a'-i. 



56 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

ance from the fact that the name occurs six hundred 
and thirteen times, twenty-four of which number are 
to be found in the New Testament. In this instance 
the mention is made about 1920 B. C.,"^ and the 
kingdom is referred to as fully established and well 
known. 

The occasion of Abram's visit was the famine 
existing in the land of Canaan. Abram journeys 
southward with the intention of entering Egypt to 
provide sustenance for himself and his retinue 
against this famine. 

15. The condition of Egypt at or just before 
the time of Abram's first visit was one of great pros- 
perity. The reigning Pharaohs, generally called 
those of the twelfth dynasty, were most probably 
the Usertesens and the Amen-emhats. Under this 
dynasty the sceptres of Upper and Lower Egypt were 
united. All the kings were powerful and prosperous 
and art flourished, the Sun temple at Heliopolis (six 
miles northeast of the present Cairo) was magnifi- 
cently restored, and in the Fayum on the west of the 
Nile (about 50 miles southwest of Cairo) the practice 
of building pyramids was revived. Here was the 
vast lake or inland sea made by Amen-emhat III., to 
receive the overplus waters of the annual overflow 
of the Nile and to distribute them in case of need. 
This king also built the great labyrinth in the Fa- 
yum, the latter name being an alteration of the 
Egyptian word for ''sea,'' namely ''Piomr 

* Hale's date is B. C. 2078. 



THE HISTORY OF ABRAM AND HIS TIMES. 5/ 

16. During this period fortifications were erected 
on the northeastern frontier of Egypt, which appear 
to have extended across the whole of the present 
isthmus of Suez {Socin), The term Shur used six 
times in Scripture is now supposed to refer to this 
^^wall."^ 

17. As the pyramids of Gizeh were built in 
the fourth dynasty (the most recent date of which 
is given by Wilkinson as 2450 B. C), they had 
been in existence more than 400 years before 
Abram's visit. The Sphinx was then existing also, 
as seems probable from an inscription found by M. 
Mariette, which indicates that there was a '' temple 
of the Sphinx '' in the time of Cheops,f the builder 
of the great pyramid. It seems also probable that 
the rule of the foreigners, called the Shepherd Kings, 
had begun before Abram's visit. 

18. These foreigners took possession of Lower 
Egypt and drove the original rulers up the Nile to 
Thebes and other parts of Upper Egypt. Long 
before this period emigrants from the East had been 
admitted to Egypt and had settled in various places 
upon the rich lands of the Delta, until, finding them- 
selves sufficiently powerful, they usurped all author- 
ity without a battle. They were called the Shepherd 
kings, or Hyksos, from what was supposed to be their 
employment. They governed Lower Egypt for about 

* Gen. 16:7; 20:1; 25:18; Exod. 15:22; i Sam. 15:7; 27:8. Shur 
means " wall." 

t Pronounced Ke'-ops. . 

3* 



58 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

five hundred years, until they were finally driven out 
by the Egyptian royal family. 

19. Abram's first visit seems to have been 
made at or near the beginning of the Hyksos era. 
The most recent date of the beginning of the rule of 
the Shepherd Kings is that of Wilkinson, 2091 B. C, 
and if the date usually given for the visit of Abram 
was 1920 B. C, then these invaders had already had 
possession of the land for over 170 years. Egypt 
was therefore renowned and its rulers were of a race 
acquainted with the employments to which Abram 
was not a stranger. They spoke the dialect of Ca- 
naan, as it is very evident that many came from the 
region of Canaan. 

30. In tliis age the Iiorse is not mentioned as 
in Egypt. Oxen and asses and sheep are found de- 
picted upon the walls and tablets, but the horse does 
not appear in Egypt till the reign of Thothmes I., 
who met with them in his wars in Assyria. This 
king was the third Pharaoh of the eighteenth dy- 
nasty.^ This dynasty began immediately after the 
expulsion of the Hyksos. So that while it is proba- 
ble that the horse might have been known only as a 
foreign animal, it was introduced into Lower Egypt 
by Thothmes L, and Egypt became known after this 
for its fine breed of horses, which took the place of 
the asses previously used throughout the land. It is 
for this reason that Abram's list of animals excludes 
the horse, Gen. 12 : 16. 

* Wilkinson's date is B. C. 1532, but Brugsch gives it as B. C. 1433. 



THE HISTORY OF ABRAM AND HIS TIMES. 59 

THE FIRST BATTLE. 

21. The next important occurrence in the 

history of Abram is that of the first battle men- 
tioned in Scripture. Abram had returned to Canaan 
with large additions to his herds. This increase 
brought about a necessary separation between Abram 
and Lot. Abram settled in Hebron, while Lot chose 
his residence in the region of Sodom and Gomorrah, 
the cities of the plain. Soon after four kings from 
Chaldaea approached Canaan on a tour of conquest, 
and passing to the south and east of the Dead Sea 
went down to Mt. Seir and thence to Kadesh, then 
called En-mishpat, and thence north to Hazezon- 
tamar. They then met the kings of Sodom and Go^ 
morrah in battle, defeated them, and carried off Lot 
and others captives. Upon knowledge of this cap- 
tivity Abram set out to overtake the invaders. He 
was joined by the forces of the three Amorites con- 
federate with him, and found the kings at Dan, about 
140 miles from Hebron northward, as they were leav- 
ing the country on their way home to Chaldaea. A 
battle now took place at night, and the four kings 
were defeated, and Lot and other captives, together 
with the stolen goods, were all retaken and brought 
back in safety. 

SODOM AND GOMORRAH. 

23, The exact location of these cities has not 
yet been discovered. They were, with the other 



6o BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

cities of the plain, situated very near the Dead Sea, 
and the traditions place them at the western part of 
the southern end, where there is a salt hill five miles 
long, called the hill of Sodom, Jebel Usdum, There 
are good reasons for supposing that when Abram 
and Lot stood overlooking the land from the heights 
near Bethel, Lot chose the region north of the Dead 
Sea, which was visible, in preference to the southern 
part, which was more than forty miles distant. But 
from the Scripture account, considered in view of the 
evident volcanic nature of this part of Palestine and 
the fearful earthquakes which have happened in the 
vicinity in recent times, there is reason to believe 
that some terrible convulsion not only buried the 
cities, but submerged the plain at the south end of 
the sea, and no other interpretation seems to suit the 
history, which definitely states that the plain and all 
that grew upon it were destroyed, the water system 
of the plain being all entirely changed. The sub- 
merged plain at the south, therefore, which is cov- 
ered for the area of about fifty square miles with 
water only a few feet deep, has given occasion for 
the theory that the cities of the plain are to be sought 
beneath these waters, which are by some supposed to 
cover the vale of Siddim. 

33. Hazezon-tamar is the same as En-gedi, 
2 Chron. 20 : 2. It is upon the west shore of the 
Dead Sea, twenty-three miles south of the mouth 
of the Jordan. Hobah, whither Abram pursued the 
kings, is two miles north of Damascus. 



THE HISTORY OF ABRAM AND HIS TIMES. 6l 

34:. Abram was near Hebron, twenty miles 
west of the Dead Sea, when the news reached him 
of the defeat of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah 
and the capture of Lot. Hebron is almost equidis- 
tant from the north and south ends of the Dead Sea, 
at an elevation of nearly 3,000 feet above the Med- 
iterranean, while the waters of the Dead Sea are 
1,293 feet below those of the Mediterranean. 

35. The recent discoveries in Clialdsea and 
the surrounding countries show that the names of 
these four kings — Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch 
king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and 
Tidal king of nations, are names which have in 
large part been found on the tablets and in the his- 
tory of the countries mentioned. Amraphel is the 
same in the Hebrew as Amarphal, and it was so 
translated in the Septuagint made more than 250 
B. C. This name was that of a viceroy of Sumir, the 
district around and south of Babylon, called Shinar 
in Genesis, and the name Amar-pal has been found 
'' borne by private persons on two cylinders of an- 
cient workmanship " (Lenormant). The Septuagint 
has for Tidal, Thargal, which seems to be the proper 
spelling ; the difference between the two spellings in 
the original Hebrew is only that between an r and a 
d, which in that language is exceedingly small. In 
the Akkadian (same as Accadian), which was the 
language used in the ancient Chaldaean times, Tur- 
gal meant ''great chief.""^ This king was chief of a 

*" Sir Henry Rawlinson. 



62 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

people called the Gutium in the monumental inscrip- 
tions, and this tribe or small nation has been identi- 
fied with the Goim of the Hebrew text, which in our 
English version is translated '' nations/* So that the 
'' Tidal king of nations," of the text in Genesis, is 
shown to be the ''great chief" of a tribe living in 
Northern Babylonia, of which one part became after- 
wards the nation of the Assyrians.^* 

Chedorlaomer, the monuments show us, was 
truly an Elamite name, Chedor, or Kudur, forming 
part of several names of the early kings of that dis- 
trict, and Laomer, or Lagamar, being the name of a 
most important Elamite god. The name Arioch is 
very similar to that of the son of an Elamite king 
who was king of Larsa, which itself is similar to the 
Hebrew name Ellasar, and the circumstances have 
led the best Assyriologists to believe that they are 
the very same. 

26. The monuniental records show that this 
king of Elam, on a previous occasion, when Abram 
was still at Haran, had passed over the Euphrates 
and conquered Phoenicia and a country to the south. 
He is called both king of Elam and king of Phoenicia, 
as the land of Canaan was called by name '' Martu," 
'' the land of the setting sun," or Phoenicia. So that 
14 years before, at the time when Chedorlaomer 
crossed the Euphrates on his first expedition, Abram 
may have beheld the troops of that king whom he 

^- " La Langue Primitive," p. 376; in Tomkin's "Times of Abra- 
ham," p. 181. 



THE HISTORY OF ABRAM AND HIS TIMES. 63 

afterward conquered, with his viceroys, when they 
came on their second invasion of Canaan. At that 
time Abram was with his father Terah at Haran, as 
we may see from the dates in the context, Gen. 16:3; 
14:5. 

THE ISHMAELITES. 

27. Some years after this battle we have the 
account of the birth of Ishmael, the son of Abram by 
Hagar. As the descendants of Ishmael exerted great 
influence in years afterward, it is well at this point 
to study the early history of this son of Abram. 
When Isaac was bom Ishmael was about 16 years of 
age, Gen. 17 : 21, 25 ; 21 : i, 8, and until the day of the 
divine promise to Abram, at which time his name was 
changed to Abraham, he was evidently, from the 
context, greatly attached to Ishmael. Moreover, 
Abram was considered by his neighbors as '' a mighty 
prince among them," Gen. 23:6. Under these cir- 
cumstances this only son must have been allowed 
privileges and attentions at the hands of the hun- 
dreds of Abram 's servants such as an heir apparent 
to all the wealth of Abram would be certain to re- 
ceive. When, however, Sarah became the mother of 
Isaac a change necessarily transpired. Ishmael was 
no longer the expected heir. Hagar's spirit of self- 
importance, which showed itself before so positively 
that she was forced to leave the family, was now re- 
peated in some disagreeable actions of her son Ish- 
mael, and, despite the persistent love of Abraham, 



64 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

Ishmael and his mother were summarily dismissed 
from the family. 

28. There can be no reasonable doubt that 
the action of Abraham in sending Hagar and her 
son out upon the desert with only sufficient food to 
support them for a time was greatly or almost en- 
tirely influenced by the direct revelation to Abraham 
that the divine interference would be exerted on be- 
half of the exiles. That had been assured, as we see 
in verses 12 and 13 of chapter 21. At the same time 
both the mother and son, after all the preceding 
years of privilege, would naturally imagine that a 
great wrong had been done them, and Ishmael read- 
ily became a wild wanderer upon the vast deserts 
east of Egypt. 

He was the progenitor of twelve great tribes 
whose names in part are recognized among some of 
the tribes existing at the present day and whose 
characters are accurately represented in the descrip- 
tion of what they were to be, as it occurs in Gen. 
16:12, and the expression '' he shall dwell in the pres- 
ence of his brethren " simply alludes to the fact that 
his race should be wanderers upon the desert with- 
out any fixed habitation, this being the life of all 
the most pleasurable to the desert Arabs. 

29. As Abraham was 99 years of age when 
Ishmael was 13, Gen. 17: 24, 25, and died at 175, it is 
plain that Ishmael must have been about 90 years of 
age at Abraham's death. The love and reverence 
which Ishmael had for the patriarch were apparent 



THE HISTORY OF ABRAM AND HIS TIMES. 65 

after this long time in the fact that at the death of 
the latter, Isaac and Ishmael united to perform the 
burial at the cave of Machpelah at Hebron, Gen. 
25:9. 

HEBRON AND MACHPELAH. 

30. Hebron is a very old city, having been found- 
ed long before Abram's time, and it is in existence at 
present. It is south of Jerusalem eighteen miles, 
and is unlike nearly all the cities in Palestine in that 
it is situated in a valley. The cave of Machpelah 
is on the east side of the valley, which runs nearly 
north and south. 

This city becomes important in Biblical history 
at the time when Sarah, the wife of Abraham, died, 
and then this cave was purchased by Abraham as a 
family burying-place. It was the first spot possessed 
by any of the ancestors of the Hebrew race in Pales- 
tine. Here Sarah and Abraham were buried and 
in after times Leah and Isaac, and Jacob's remains 
were, by his desire, removed from Egypt and placed 
by the side of his wife Leah. 

Although Hebron has suffered several attacks and 
partial destruction, it is probable that the sacredness 
of the place may have protected it so that the actual 
remains of some of the bodies deposited there may 
yet be there, under Moslem guardianship. 

After the birth of Isaac^ Abraham remained 
in the region of Gerar, whose precise location is not 
known, although it must have been in the southwest 

Biblical History and Geography. 



66 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

of Canaan and in the land of the Philistines. From 
thence he removed to Beersheba.^" 

BEERSHEBA AND GERAR. 

31. Beerslietoa bears, at the present day, the 
same name and contains two wells, one about 1 2 feet 
in diameter, the other about 5 feet. The larger ap- 
pears to be very old and may well have existed since 
the days of the patriarch. It is about 40 feet deep to 
the water and is still used daily by the Arabs. The 
exact distance from Hebron to Beersheba is twenty- 
six and a half miles southwest. There are some 
ruins 24 miles southwest by south from Beersheba, 
called Umel Jerar, which possibly may indicate where 
the ancient Gerar was. 

33. From Beersheba Abraham travelled with Isaac 
to Mt. Moriah, which was at the present site of 
Jerusalem and distant in an air line 45 miles north- 
east. Here his obedience and faith were severely 
tried in the command to offer up, as a burnt-offering, 
his only son Isaac. This act might have been more 
trying to the faith of Abraham because it was the 
practice of the Canaanites at that time. That the 
immolation of children was practised by the Phoeni- 
cians at that age and in the land of Chaldaea is proved 
by an Accadian text which expressly states that sin 
may be expiated by the vicarious sacrifice of the 
eldest son.f In after times it was practised by the 

* Bir es Seba in the Arabic is the same as Beersheba in the Hebrew. 
t Sayce, ** Ancient Empires," p. 200. 



THE HISTORY OF ABRAM AND HIS TIMES. 67 

Moabites, 2 Kings 3 : 27. But Abraham*s faith never 
failed him, and the offering was accepted, though 
the act was arrested. 

33. Abraham after this purchased the cave 
of Machpelah, of which we have spoken, where Sarah 
was buried, and he himself was laid away in the 
same place at his death, having given all his possess- 
ions to his son Isaac, except some smaller gifts to his 
other children by his second wife Keturah, vfhen he 
sent them away from Isaac his son *' unto the east 
country.'' 

34. The character of Abraham has been re- 
vered among the Jews, Mohammedans, and Chris- 
tians alike in all ages and parts of the world. His 
tomb now existing at Hebron is among the very few 
places in the East about which there has never been 
any doubt. The structure, now a mosque, is a Mo- 
hammedan addition to a building which was in part 
erected near the beginning of the Christian era. 



68 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE PATRIARCHS ISAAC AND JACOB. 

1. Isaac, as appears from sacred history, towards 
the close of his father's life, dwelt in the *' south 
country," a term given to the large district far to the 
south of Hebron, where also Abraham was probably 
living at the same time. 

The exact place called Beer-lahai-roi, or "the 
spring of Lahai-roi," is not known, but it was that 
spring, called a ''well," which was mentioned in con- 
nection with the first departure of Hagar, and it was 
evidently on the way towards Egypt, between Kadesh 
and Bered, some thirty miles nearly south of Beer- 
sheba. 

2. The pastures were excellent here, and Isaac, 
now about 40 years of age, had come into possession 
of large herds whose care devolved upon him. It 
was here that he received his wife, whom his father 
Abraham had selected for him from among his kin- 
dred in the far-off land of Mesopotamia in preference 
to the people of the land where he dwelt, who were 
Hittites, and descendants of Canaan the son of Ham, 
Abraham being a descendant of Shem. The Phi- 
listines who dwelt on the southwest coast of Canaan 
and of whom the Abimelech of the text was king, 
were formerly a mixed race. In this age they are 



THE PATRIARCHS ISAAC AND JACOB. 69 

considered to be the immediate descendants of a 
tribe which took possession of the dry, salt region 
stretching from the Delta of the Nile on the coast 
around towards Canaan. Here, in early times, they 
became the great salt producers and of great im- 
portance to the salt fisheries which supplied vari- 
ous surrounding countries. The Mt. Casios iii their 
territory was the '' Kas-lokh," or ''dry" ''burnt up 
hill " of the ancient Egyptians, hence the name of 
Casluhim, of the Hebrew text, as that of the peo- 
ple from whom the Philistines were derived, Gen. 
10: 14. 

3. They seem many years before to have left the 
Phoenician shores and settled near the coast of the 
Egyptian Delta. Thence they moved to the salt 
regions, but they adapted themselves fully to the 
Egyptian method of life and literature, as appears 
from their history gathered from the ancient rec- 
ords. These records have fully corroborated the 
statement of Genesis."^ 

4. In the time of Abram they had taken pos- 
session of the southwestern part of Palestine and 
had largely modified their habits of life. They are 
represented on the monuments of Egypt as fine- 
looking warriors, wearing a head-dress of peculiar 
and very ornamental form, with the back of the neck 
protected, and when marching, moving in great or- 
der, using the javelin and the short sword for close 
combat. 

* We have mentioned them on page 2>7 - 



70 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

5. At this time, about B. C. 1800, the Philis- 
tines had not arrived at that condition of power and 
wealth which they possessed in later centuries. They 
afterward became most formidable enemies of the 
Israelites, and possessed at least five grand cities. 
In this era of their history Gerar seems to be the 
residence of the king, Abimelech, as it was of his 
father of the same name in the time of Abraham, 
90 years before. Being a small tribe, its king was 
anxious to form an alliance with Isaac, whose house- 
hold and possessions had become very great, and, 
judging from the context, his retinue of servants 
and his wealth exceeded all that Abraham had pos- 
sessed before him. 

6. There are, at present, two wells at Beersheba 
of the same general architecture, and both seem to 
be very ancient. The one about 300 feet off from 
the large one, spoken of before, is only about five 
feet in diameter. As the men of Gerar, at Abraham's 
death, filled up '' all the wells " built by the patri- 
arch, it is probable that the second well was dug by 
the servants of Isaac and called also Beersheba as 
commemorative of the second oath of treaty made by 
Abimelech, the second of that same name men- 
tioned in Scripture, and his commander-in-chief, as 
Phicol means. 

The life of Isaac seems to have been spent 
chiefly in the region of Beersheba, but he died at 
Hebron, at the age of 180 years, Esau and Jacob 
are his only sons named in the sacred history. 



THE PATRIARCHS ISAAC AND JACOB. 71 

JACOB. 

7. Jacob was a native of Beersheba, and, having 
incurred the displeasure of his brother Esau by the 
practice of a deceitful act towards his father, as nar- 
rated in the text. Gen. 2^, fled to the same region 
whence his father obtained his own wife, and there 
found his wives Leah and Rachel in Mesopotamia. 

In that act of deceit he was aided by his mother, 
who probably never lived to see again the son she 
loved so much. Jacob returned not for many years, 
although when his mother parted with him she sup- 
posed it was for ''a few days," Gen. 27:44. He re- 
turned to Hebron shortly before the death of his 
father, in whose burial, in the cave of Machpelah, 
both his sons, Esau and Jacob, united. Gen. 35 : 29. 

8. Jacob and his twelve sons remained near 
Hebron for some time after the death of his father 
Isaac, when an event occurred which changed the 
history of the entire family and led to their long 
residence in the land of Egypt. 

Joseph, the son of Jacob's old age, because of 
jealousy on the part of his brethren, was sold by 
them to a party of trading merchants, called " Ish- 
maelites." These ''came from Gilead, with their 
camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going 
to carry it down to Egypt." 

Gilead was the large district east of the Jor- 
dan, beginning some 1 5 miles southwest of Damas- 
cus, and whose southern limit was a few miles north 
of the Dead Sea. Their way towards Egypt was 



T2 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

by Dothan, where the brethren were tending their 
father's flock. 

Dothan was a Canaanitish town about five 
miles southwest of the Carmel range of mountains 
and thirteen miles north of Shechem. It was fully 
900 feet above the sea, and on the south of a beauti- 
ful plain five miles long and two wide. 

9. The Ishmaelites sold Joseph in Egypt, where, 
through his ability to interpret the dream of Pha- 
raoh, he became, under the king, the second ruler of 
Egypt and prepared for the seven years of famine 
which were preceded by seven years of extraordi- 
nary harvests. The famine in Egypt was attended 
by famine in Canaan, as also in other lands. This 
condition of famine caused Jacob to send his sons 
into Egypt for corn. It should be remembered that 
in these countries the word ''corn'' was applied to 
almost any kind of grain, but especially to wheat and 
barley, as indeed it is at the present day in several 
other countries. It is not probable that Indian maize, 
called corn in our land, was ever referred to in 
Scripture. 

At the second visit of the patriarch's sons, Joseph, 
who recognized them at the first visit, made himself 
known unto them and sent them back with the di- 
rection to bring his father, and all that made up the 
entire family, into Egypt. 

10. After some hesitation on the part of Jacob, 
he left Hebron, and passing through Beersheba, 
started on his way to Egypt, where he arrived and 



THE PATRIARCHS ISAAC AND JACOB. 73 

was met by Joseph, on the plains of Goshen. Re- 
cent discovery has located this region about 40 miles 
northeast of the present Cairo, in its central point, 
with a diameter of about 1 5 miles.^ 

Jacob was introduced to the reigning Pharaoh 
when he was 130 years of age. His interview was 
followed by the settlement of the entire family, with 
all their herds and possessions, in the district above 
mentioned. This was a small district included in a 
much larger one called, in after times, the land of 
Rameses, which name had reference to a second king 
of that name, Rameses II., who was the great build- 
er monarch, and who lived not long before the time 
of the Exodus. He died when Moses was 80 years 
of age. 

[The student of Biblical chronology should use considerable 
caution in accepting the dates and surmises offered by some wri- 
ters in connection with this history. The ages already given us in 
the text, namely, 130 for Jacob when Joseph was 39 by the texts 
preceding, show that Jacob was 91 years of age at Joseph's birth, 
but by Gen. 31 138 he had been at least 14 years with Laban, 
in Mesopotamia, just preceding the birth of Joseph. So that 
14 years before the birth of Joseph he left his home for Ha- 
ran, at the age of 77. It seems somewhat probable that Jacob 
was 40 years in Haran, and that he means to make that as- 
sertion when, in Gen. 31:38, 41, he separates the two 20 years. 
This affords more time for his sons to grow to the ages of 
that manhood necessary for the after occurrences narrated in the 
history. For the eldest, Reuben and Simeon, were born not until 
the marriage with Leah, and this appears to have been only seven 
years before the birth of Joseph. Six years after the birth of 
Joseph, Jacob leaves with all his family for Shechem, where he re- 

* Fourth memoir of " The Egypt Exploration Fund," 1887, p. 15. 
4 



74 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

mains eight years. It appears, therefore, that Simeon and Levi, 
when they attacked and overthrew Shechem and sacked the town, 
were not over 19 or 20 years of age, as six of the last years and re- 
engagement for six years in Mesopotamia, and eight in Shechem, 
and perhaps a year on the travel, and various stoppages, give 
grounds for that supposition, if Jacob was only 20 years with La- 
ban. It would then be as follows, remembering that Reuben was 
the first-born of the sons of Jacob : 

8th year. Reuben born first year after Jacob's marriage. 

14th year. The rest born during the six remaining years ; Jo- 
seph now born. 

20th year. At the close of the last seven years Jacob is newly 
employed for six years, which, with the previous 14 years, makes 
20 years with Laban, Gen. 31 138. 

2ist year. Jacob and all the family start for Canaan, and 
reach Shechem, including stoppages, in the 21st year, or 13th year 
after Reuben's birth. 

When Jacob arrived in Shechem he bought land, dug a well, 
and is considered as resident for eight years. 

29th year. At the close of this year Simeon and Levi attack 
the Shechemites. This would make Reuben about 21 or 22, and 
Simeon and Levi 19 and 20, but old enough, with their servants 
and probably others, to have executed their revenge. But we 
must understand that this is the extreme shortest period, and 
several circumstances might have detained them longer on their 
journeys and made the sons older. 

In the above calculation it is not necessary to suppose that Ja- 
cob was any longer than 20 years engaged with Laban. It is im- 
possible to suppose, with some writers, that Jacob was only 40 years 
of age when he left his home for Haran.] 

11. Jacob, having had the land of Goshen, 
in Egypt, appointed him, remained there until his 
death at 147 years of age, having dwelt in the land 
of Egypt 17 years. 

As Joseph died at no years of age, he lived 



THE PATRIARCHS ISAAC AND JACOB. 75 

56 years after the death of Jacob, as governor of 
Egypt, very probably, since the last account of 
him was that ''they embalmed him and he was 
put in a coffin in Egypt/' He lived to see his 
great grandchildren, and therefore was prominent 
in Egypt for a term of 80 years. 



y(> BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

CHAPTER VII. 

EGYPTIAN TESTIMONIES. 

The recovery of the meaning of the Egyp- 
tian hieroglyphics, and the many discoveries of mon- 
uments illustrating the early history and literature 
of that nation, have added great interest to the 
study of Scripture and established the accuracy of 
Biblical accounts of this period. 

1. The articles which the Ishmaelites carried to 
Egypt at the time Joseph was sold are, in part, re- 
corded in a list upon one of the tablets at Edfu, on 
the Nile. The first and second of the articles named 
in Gen. 37:25 are recorded by name, the article 
rendered ''spicery '' being the name of a gum found 
in Syria. 

3. The price of a common slave of Joseph's 
age is recorded in the time of Rameses XIII. as 
about $10. This agrees with the statement. Gen. 37 : 
28, where it is stated that Joseph was sold for twenty 
pieces of silver, shown to be shekels of about 50 to 
56 cents' value, which was high, but Egyptian records 
show that young men from Syria were unusually 
valuable.* 

3. The existence of slavery is frequently allu- 
ded to upon the monuments and in manuscripts, 

•^ Osborn's '' Ancient Egypt in the Light of Modern Discovery," p. 82. 



EGYPTIAN TESTIMONIES. 7/ 

wherein those who had lost slaves offer rewards to 
any one who will bring them back. Moreover, Syr- 
ian slaves are recorded as of great value, and a treaty 
record is still preserved, made between Rameses II. 
and the king of the Hittites, in which it is agreed to 
return fugitive slaves. 

4. The statement has been made by several 
Greek historians that the Egyptians never cultivated 
the grape nor drank wine. Therefore the state- 
ment that Pharaoh drank the juice of the grapes, or 
wine, and had a chief butler, as stated in Gen. 40, 
was said to be inaccurate. But the discoveries show 
that not only were vineyards cultivated, but the 
grapes were pressed in the wine-press, grapes were 
eaten, and wine made and used before the time of 
Joseph. 

5. Various terms as descriptive of official posi- 
tion, of names of places and objects of art or com- 
merce, are now shown to be of ancient Egyptian 
origin, although brought into the Hebrew ^'anguage. 
The use of these terms and names proves that the 
early Israelites were in familiar contact with the 
Egyptians. 

6. The name of Rameses, used in the history 
of Joseph, as afterward in the history of the Israel- 
ites, has been shown to be that of the chief Pharaoh 
of Egypt, and his mummy has recently been re- 
covered with his name and titles inscribed upon his 
body, and certified to by the high-priest. 

7. The singular remark made by the writer of 



78 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

Genesis concerning the shepherds, 46 : 34, has been 
thoroughly attested by the history of the incursion of 
the Shepherd Kings, who oppressed the land, seized 
upon the government in the Delta, and drove the 
native kings up the Nile to Thebes, occupying and 
ruling the land for about 500 years. It was at the 
close of their rule that Joseph is supposed to have 
entered Egypt. 

8. The keeping of the birthday of Pharaoh as 
stated in Gen. 40 : 20 is fully attested in the history 
of the early Egyptian periods. An inscription of the 
era of the Exodus tells us that the birthday of Ram- 
eses 11. '' caused joy in heaven." ^ Great gatherings 
and feasts were had, and the king dispensed his 
favors as he saw fit.f 

9. The name for the Nile used in the Hebrew 
is the Egyptian name for that river found in the pa- 
pyri, and translated in our English version as '' the 
river." It is not the word the Hebrews used for a 
river, and its use proves that the writer was familiar 
with Egyptian usage. 

10. Tlie statement as to the offices of chief 
butler and chief baker, as appointed to the Pharaoh, 
is remarkably attested by the Egyptian records, 
which show that these two were very high and im- 
portant offices, ''for both had the responsible duty 
of protecting the king's life from poison." X 

* Ebers' " Konigstochter," Vol. I., p. 22 in the note, 40. 

t Geikie, Vol. I., p. 468. 

X See Geikie, Vol. I., p. 462. 



EGYPTIAN TESTIMONIES. 79 

11. A most remarkable illustration of the 

accuracy of Joseph's history, as narrated in Genesis, 
is seen in the statement that he was required to 
change his clothes and be shaven before going into 
the presence of the king. Among the kindred of 
Joseph shaving was never practised, except as a dis- 
grace. But with the Egyptian the law of cleanli- 
ness required shaving, not only of the chin, but of 
the hair also. Not only every priest, but the king 
himself, was shaven, and the appearance of great 
heads of hair, and even of beard, in some pictures 
is due to the wigs and artificial beards worn by 
priests and laymen alike to cover the bald head. All 
foreigners were known by being unshorn. 

The accuracy of Scripture in its references to the 
land of Egypt in ancient times has been proved 
only since the discovery of the meaning of the hie- 
roglyphics, as Greek historians knew little of Egypt 
in its ancient history, and their accounts were erro- 
neous, as is frequently apparent in Herodotus."^ 

* For illustrations of this fact see '^ Ancient Empires of the East/' 
Sayce. Preface. 



8o BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

PERIOD III. 

THE THEOCRACY TO THE JUDQES. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPT. 

1. How long after the death of Joseph the 
Israelites remained in Goshen until they were en- 
slaved has not as yet been determined. The ac- 
count in the book of Exodus opens with the signif- 
icant expression that *' there arose up a new king 
over Egypt who knew not Joseph." It has been sup- 
posed that Joseph was governor under the last of 
the Shepherd Kings, but this supposition is uncer- 
tain, and perhaps wrong, for the long life of Joseph 
after he came into Egypt, namely 80 years, added 
to the necessarily advanced age of the Pharaoh who 
was upon the throne on the arrival of Joseph, would, 
with greater probability, lead us to suppose that 
Joseph's sojourn in Egypt was extended through 
more than one reign of the Shepherd Kings. 

3. But at the end of the happy, quiet Shep- 
herd era, among the descendants of Jacob in Goshen 
there came a change. The Israelites became en- 



THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPT. 8 1 

slaved, for the mandate of the Pharaoh of the period 
went forth to set over them taskmasters and to 
afHict them with burdens, the object being to put 
a stop to their excessive growth in numbers. 

3. As we have said, the Shepherd Kings ruled 
Egypt for about 500 years. Towards the close of 
their rule and, as it is generally supposed, under a 
king whose name is recorded as Apopi, or, as the 
Greek historians spell the name, Aphobis, Joseph 
came into Egypt, and the long war between the 
legitimate kings and the uprising rulers was con- 
tinued for about 80 years. 

Finally these Shepherd Kings were driven out of 
the Delta by a Pharaoh of the i8th dynasty,"^ and 
from that period about 400 years transpired, during 
■ which the 1 8th dynasty passed away and a new dy- 
nasty, the 19th, came into power. Of this 19th dy- 
nasty two kings passed away before the celebrated 
Seti I. began to reign. Rameses II. was the son of 
Seti I., and his reign {6j years) was the longest of 
any of this dynasty. 

4. Moses, at the age of forty, was driven in- 
to the desert of Sinai, on the east of Egypt, where he 
escaped from the wrath of the reigning Pharaoh, and 
where he remained 40 years, until the death of the 
king. The Pharaoh with whom Moses* name is thus 
associated must have reigned a long time, and the 
reign of Rameses 11. meets the conditions of the his- 

* Dynasty was the terra given to kings of the same family or blood 
relations. 

4* 



82 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

tory, not only as to time, but also as to the name. 
It is for these reasons that the Egyptian Rameses II. 
is supposed to be the Pharaoh alluded to in the first 
chapter of the book of Exodus, as the Scripture 
Rameses. 

5. After the death of Rameses, Moses return- 
ed to Egypt from his 40 years' residence in the desert 
of Sinai. As his life in those parts was spent in the 
shepherd occupation, he was well acquainted with 
the region, and in a large degree fitted for the work 
to which he was called by the Lord, to take charge 
of the deliverance of the Israelites from the bondage 
in Egypt. 

By divine command he appeared before the reign- 
ing Pharaoh and demanded, in the name of Jehovah, 
the release of his brethren, who, in all, must have 
been about 2,000,000. This number, though not 
stated, may be supposed to be correct as based upon 
the fact that at the departure from Egypt the able 
men numbered 600,000. 

6. The unwillingness of the king to let the 
people go was finally subdued by a series of remark- 
able plagues. The most singular feature of these 
inflictions is found in the fact that in every case 
they seem to have attacked the Egyptians in the 
most important elements of either their national 
greatness or in the direction of their greatest com- 
forts and reliance. Another singular feature in the 
whole course of affliction was their progressive seri- 
ousness. 



THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPT. 83 

7. The first plague appeared in the sudden 
change of the waters of the Nile into blood. The 
Nile was not only the great source of water supply, 
but was supposed to be under the immediate care of 
the gods of Egypt. Hymns have come down to 
us composed in the honor of the personified Nile. 
These were composed before the time of Moses, and 
give the names of their chief gods to the waters of 
the great river. The Nile was ^'the representative 
of all that was good." This plague made it necessary 
that the people should begin digging wells near 
the banks of the river and elsewhere throughout all 
Egypt. 

8. The second plague, of frogs, attacked in like 
manner, but more directly, the religious supersti- 
tions. The frog-headed deity Heki was the w4fe 
of the god of the cataracts of the Nile, who also 
was represented with a frog's head. The frog was 
the symbol of renewed life after death, and was wor- 
shipped as such. 

9. The third plague was more intense ; it afflict- 
ed man and brute alike. The ground brought forth 
insects, '' lice " so called, in such abundance that even 
the priests could not cleanse themselves. The priests 
were not allowed to use woollen in any of their gar- 
ments, because of the likelihood that it would harbor 
this vile evil, which was one greatly abhorred. In- 
sects of every kind, even gnats, were considered un- 
clean. Priests and people were alike unclean. 

10. The fourth plague, of flies, was somewhat 



84 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

similar, being an insect curse, but now the curse was 
winged. 

11. The fifth plague, of " murrain/' was far more 
serious, as it not only touched the honor of the Egyp- 
tian faith in the worship of Isis and Osiris, to whom 
the cattle were sacred, but caused the death of the 
cattle throughout Egypt. It troubled in yet more 
serious degree the temple and the market, the priest 
and the people. 

13. The sixth was yet more distressing, for it 
sent boils and ''blains" upon man and beast, not 
even the magicians being able to stand in the pres- 
ence of Moses ''because of the boils." 

13. Tlie seven til plag'ue was one not only of 
hail, but of fearful displays of lightning and peals of 
thunder, such as were never before known in the 
land. 

14. The eightli was a terrific visitation of lo- 
custs which began, in unprecedented numbers, to 
eat up all vegetation left by the hail. 

15. Tlie ninth was intense darkness, in which 
plague not only w^as there an exceeding discomfort 
felt throughout the land, but the sun, which was the 
most sacred object of reverence, the supreme god of 
Egypt, withdrew his light before the command of 
Moses, as servant of the most high God. 

16. The tenth plague was by far the most fear- 
ful of all. It was to the Egyptians both distressing " 
and ominous. The first-born was, in a most loving 
sense, the most important member of the family — 



THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPT. 8$ 

the one, above all the rest, upon whom the privileges 
of birthright were laid and who was, accordingly, 
regarded with special attention and love. Besides, 
in this fearful and sudden death of the first-born in 
every place there was felt, as never before, the pres- 
ence of some awful power immediately back of this 
plague, which seemed to them to presage the ap- 
proach of the destruction of the entire nation, and 
hence their outcry, '' We be all dead men,*' Exod. 

12:33. 

The Exodus, or the *' departure,*' began imme- 
diately, and Moses and Aaron, who had anticipated 
the result of this last plague, had prepared all the 
Israelites by giving them sufficient notice for a hur- 
ried flight. 



86 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SINAI AND THE 

DESERT. 

1. It is necessary that we should obtain a gen- 
eral knowledge of the country over which the Israel- 
ites were now to travel. The land of Goshen, where 
the great majority of the Israelites were stationed, 
was included, probably, in the greater district of 
Rameses, as we have said. They left some general 
rendezvous early in the morning for Succoth, which 
was twenty or twenty-five miles southeast of the 
district of Goshen. The treasure city Pithom, men- 
tioned with Rameses in the first chapter of Exodus 
(verse ii), was in Succoth, as a recent discovery has 
shown. The west arm of the Red Sea was about 
sixty miles farther south. The triangular district of 
the country between the two northern arms of the 
Red Sea, to which they were going, is a mountainous 
tract gradually ascending from the Gulf of Suez, or 
western arm, to the mountainous region of Horeb, of 
which Sinai was a chief mountain.^ These moun- 
tains are entirely of granite. The large plain at 
the base of Sinai is 400 feet above the sea. The Si- 
nai mountain seems to rise directly up from this 

* This view appears to be the correct one, although there is some 
variation of opinion. 



SINAI AND THE DESERT. 8/ 

plain to the height of from 1,200 to 1,500 feet, and in 
some parts, at its base, the rock is for a long distance 
almost perpendicular, like a high bluff above the 
level soil. Parts of the rocky heights are 2,000 feet 
above the plain. 

2. North of this region, about 50 miles, a 
sandy stretch of country comes abruptly to a general 
rise of sandstone cliffs, which extend many miles 
east and west, and the granite rocks disappear, 
having been left behind in Horeb. 

It is 200 miles, a little east of north, from Mt. 
Sinai to the south end of the Dead Sea and to the 
lower limits of the land of Canaan, whither the Isra- 
elites were journeying. Mt. Sinai is about 35 miles 
from the western and about 25 from the eastern arm 
of the Red Sea. 



THE ISRAELITES IN THE DESERT. 

3, The recent discovery of Succoth and the 

treasure city Pithom fixes this place as that of the 
first encampment of the Israelites at the Exodus. 
One inscription calls the place Petum (the "abode'* 
of Tum) in the city of Thuku, or ''Pithom in the 
city of Succoth." 

The great desert now begins, stretching east- 
ward from Succoth for about 200 miles, a very 
desolate and barren region, to the country of Edom 
and the great valley of Arabah, which valley runs 
northward directly from the eastern arm of the Red 



88 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

Sea to the Dead Sea, a distance of 115 miles. The 
chief divine object in directing the course of the 
Israelites southeast from Egypt to the region of Ho- 
reb and then around by the Gulf of Akabah, rather 
than by the short course to Canaan by the coast, is 
expressed in the Scripture, and was one of discipline, 
Exod. 13:17, and preparation for the new life they 
were destined to live. 

4. Many misapprehensions of the real diiBfi- 
culty of this long travel have resulted from a failure 
to comprehend Ihe largeness of the company. It 
must be remembered that so large a number as 2,000- 
000 people, with their herds and flocks, their tents, 
the Tabernacle, and other baggage, must have cov- 
ered a much larger space than is sometimes allowed 
by some readers of this history. Thus in crossing 
the Red Sea and stopping at stations and fording the 
Jordan on their arrival at Canaan, and in settling 
upon plains, before and after, it must be always kept 
in mind that no narrow line or small surface less 
than several square miles would in any way repre- 
sent that necessary area over which the moving body 
travelled, or rested when it came to a halt. In its 
course at evening the advanced officers would soon 
lay out upon the area to be occupied the plan for 
encampment, and in a short time that space of land, 
which an hour before was the prowling-ground for 
a few wild beasts of the desert, would become the 
site of a city of 2,000,000 inhabitants, with long 
streets and squares lighted with the magnificent 



SINAI AND THE DESERT. 89 

and mysterious flame which accompanied them dur- 
ing all their wanderings. 

5. The habits of eating and drinking in that 
day were very different from anything now custom- 
ary in our midst. The plainest food, and frequently 
only one meal a day and one draught of water in 24 
hours, is sufficient for the Bedouin of the desert. We 
are therefore wrong in comparing the habits of the 
times of the Exodus with those of the present day. 

6. Very few of the stations named after cross- 
ing the Red Sea can be certainly located. But after 
leaving Mt. Sinai, at three days' journey Prof. Pal- 
mer discovered the evidences of an ancient camp, 
surrounded by an immense number of graves, and 
this place is generally supposed to mark the site of 
a station called Kibroth-hattaavah, or '^the graves 
of gluttony,'* the history of which is found in Num. 
11:31-35. A day's journey north of this the same 
explorer discovered other extensive remains of stone 
heaps and circles covering the hillsides in every 
direction. As the next station of the Israelites is 
called Hazeroth, which means '' the circles," and as 
the Arabs still call this place the "look-outs of 
Hazeroth," it seems that the site of another station 
is known. 

7. After this it is difficult to trace their course 
until they reached Kadesh, which is 140 miles due 
east of their first camping-ground in Egypt, namely, 
Succoth, and at present seems identical with the spot 
called Ain Gadis, or the spring of Kade^sh, 170 miles 



go BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

north by east from Sinai, and 65 miles southwest of 
the Dead Sea. 

There is evidence that anciently a great popula- 
tion was scattered over this region of Ain Gadis, and 
considerable verdure exists even at present. This 
appears to have been the general camping-ground of 
the Israelites for a large part of the thirty-seven years 
before they finally started to enter the promised land. 
The sad history of the event which brought this long 
delay is recorded in Num. 14. 



THE ENTRANCE INTO CANAAN. 9I 



CHAPTER III. 

THE ENTRANCE INTO CANAAN. 

1. After the long residence in the region of 

Kadesh the Israelites took up their march to 

Canaan. The generation now existing had been 
almost altogether born in the desert, and had been 
raised under the tutelage of Moses and his brother 
Aaron. Miriam, the sister, had undoubtedly added 
much to the influence which her brothers exerted by 
her nearer relation to the female population. The 
discipline had had its full effect during this long 
period, and there had grown up a vigorous and well- 
ordered race, totally different from the race that had 
left Egypt forty years before. 

3. It is probable that during this long period 
Moses had written out much, if not all, of the 
Scriptures usually attributed to him under the title 
of *'the books of Moses.'' Although there is no def- 
inite statement in Scripture that all of these books, 
called the Pentateuch, are the composition of Moses, 
certain parts are spoken of as those of his personal 
writing. But of the five books the parts spoken of 
are only in the closing chapters of the last book, 
namely, Deuteronomy, and as the five have never 
been known except as forming one roll or volume, 
the general belief and tradition attribute the whole 



92 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

five to Moses as author. The impression that Moses 
was the author of Genesis, and that this book of Gen- 
esis was the beginning of ''The Law/' is apparent 
in the writings of Longinus, the Greek author, A. D. 
270, who quotes Gen. 1 13 as ''the beginning of Mo- 
ses' law.""^ 

3. The census of the nation at this time shows 
that nearly 2,000 men had disappeared, and perhaps 
this lessening of the population was due to the deaths 
of the strangers and aliens who had become mixed 
in the vast crowd at the time of their departure from 
Egypt. 

The first census was taken at Sinai in the second 
year after the crossing of the Red Sea, Num. i : 46, 
and was 603,5 50. The second ce nsus was taken nearly 
40 years afterwards, just before the entrance into the 
promised land. Num. 26: 51, and was 601,730, the dif- 
ference being 1,820. The census included only the 
able-bodied men fit for war and over 20 years of age. 

4. Moses died upon Mt. Pisgah without crossing 
the Jordan, Aaron died on Mt. Hor, and Miriam died 
at Kadesh. These leaders being dead, the authority 
to take charge was vested in Joshua. 

MT. HOR, MT. NEBO, MT. PISGAH. 

5. Mt, Hor is 45 miles south of the Dead Sea, 
having the ruins of the city Petra near its eastern 
base. Wandering Arab tribes control all access to 

*" Gray's ^' Connection between Sacred and Heathen Authors/' p. 
563. Longinus *' On the Sublime." 



THE ENTRANCE INTO CANAAN. 93 

these two places, but a small chapel marks the spot, 
according to tradition, where Aaron died on the top 
of the mountain. 

Pisgah is supposed to be a high plateau ten 
miles east of the mouth of the Jordan, and Mt. Nebo 
a higher portion of the same general range, but it is 
at a short distance east of that part where the high 
table-land of Moab begins to descend to the Dead 
Sea. From this elevation very extensive views of 
the land west of the Jordan may be had. 

THE ERA OF JOSHUA. 

6. From the high table-land of Moab the 
Israelites descended to the eastern Jordan plains a 
few miles north of the Dead Sea, and soon crossed 
the river and landed upon the wide plain west of the 
banks. The crossing must have occupied the bed of 
the river for a long distance. 

On entrance upon the land of Canaan proper the 
hosts of Israel renewedly consecrated themselves to 
the service of Jehovah at Gilgal. They accepted 
Joshua as their commander, and began their first 
attempt at subduing the Canaanites by an attack on 
Jericho. 

GILGAL AND JERICHO. 

7. The first of these names represents simply 
a gathering-place of the Israelites when the dedica- 
tion of themselves to the Lord took place. Its posi- 
tion is supposed to have been at a place still called 
Gilgal, in the Arabic Jiljulieh, nearly three miles west 



94 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

of the Jordan and six miles north-northwest of its 
month. Jericho at this time was near the present 
Ain es Sultan, a very fine spring one and a quarter 
miles northwest from the present little Arab village 
called Er Riha or Jericho by travellers, and five 
miles west of the river. After its destruction at this 
time it was rebuilt B. C. 918, i Kin. 16:34, at the 
mouth of the valley of the Kelt, which is the ancient 
valley of Achor, and existed at that place in the time 
of our Saviour. The present miserable Arab village 
Er Riha and the tower near it were built during the 
crusades. 

The name Gilgal signifies a ''rolling'' and also a 
** circle,'' and probably the twelve stones taken from 
the bed of the Jordan were placed in the form of a 
circle, making the real significance more emphatic, 
but the true significance of the name is given in the 
passage. Josh. 5 : 9, as a rolling off *' the reproach of 
Egypt," as described in that chapter. There were 
two other towns bearing this name of which mention 
is made hereafter. 

THE SETTLEMENT IN CANAAN. 

8. Jericho was inhabited at this time by a lux- 
urious people and one that evidently had profited 
greatly by the richness of the vast plain of the Jor- 
dan. The mention of the precious metals, ^' the sil- 
ver and gold and vessels of brass and iron," Josh. 
6:19, the "goodly Babylonish garment," the 200 
shekels of silver, the wedge of gold of 50 shekels' 



THE ENTRANCE INTO CANAAN. 95 

weight stolen by Achan, Josh. 7:21, and the referen- 
ces to Baal-peor in the historic connection, prove their 
wealth and suggest the nature of their idolatry. Re- 
cent historic discoveries show the cruelty and fearful 
depravity of the people with whom they were associ- 
ated. They were therefore given over to destruc- 
tion in accordance with the customs of that time. 

The name Jericho seems to mean the ''city of 
the moon/' a name given to the city because of the 
early worship of the moon at that place under the 
title Ashtoreth, which doubtless was derived from 
the earlier title of the Babylonian Astarte, the god- 
dess of love. It was given about this time to a city 
in Bashan called Ashteroth Karnaim, meaning Ash- 
toreth of the two horns, Gen. 14: 5. 

CANAAN. 

9. This was the name of the land which the 
Israelites were now to conquer. The name was well 
known to the Egyptians, and we find it upon the 
monuments in Egypt and in Assyria. A description 
of this land occurs in Egyptian records as early as 
the time of Thothmes III. (1600 B. C, Brugsch), also 
in the reign of Rameses 11. , ''the Pharaoh of the 
oppression'' (1350 B. C, Brugsch), and from these 
descriptions it is plain that the land was settled by 
numerous tribes who were well provided with the 
comforts of living. 

They were not only numerous, but many of their 
cities were strongly defended by fortresses. The 



96 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

list of articles recovered by Rameses 11. after his 
battles in Canaan bore testimony to the wealth of 
the people and to the luxuries of their times, for 
among many other articles were ivory, ebony, chari- 
ots inlaid with gold and silver, suits of armor, fra- 
grant woods, gold dishes with handles, collars and 
ornaments of lapis lazuli^ silver dishes, vases of sil- 
ver, precious stones, brazen spears, etc., ^' the plunder 
in fact of a rich and civilized country/'^ 

THE AMORITES. 

10. Tlie land of Canaan at the time of 
Joslina was no barbarous or ill-defended region. In 
the assault upon the Canaanitish city of Dapurf by 
Rameses II. the standard of the Amorites appears 
hoisted on the highest tower of its citadel.;}: From 
the pictures of the Amorites upon the monuments in 
Egypt they w^ere armed with the bow and the oblong 
shield, and used chariots of solid construction fit for 
rough ground, and it is probable that the *'sons of 
Anak,'' Num. 13 : 33, were a distinguished clan among 
the Amorites and not a distinct people.§ They were 
selected for their size and strength. 

THE HITTITES. 

11. It has been only recently that the history of 
the Hittites has come to light. The earliest ref- 

* Lepsius in Geikie, Vol. H., p. 384. 

t Supposed to have been Debir, south of Hebron. 

X Wilkinson in Tomkins' " Studies of the Times of Abraham/' p. %(i. 

§ Tomkins, p. 86. 



THE ENTRANCE INTO CANAAN. 97 

erciices to this people in secular history are those 
which are found in the history of Assyria. They 
are first mentioned in Scripture as the sons of Heth, 
Gen. 23 : 3, in connection with the purchase by Abra- 
ham of the cave of Machpelah at Hebron. But fifty- 
three years before that event the Amorites seem 
to have been an important tribe, and fought under 
the direction of Abraham the first battle recorded in 
Scripture, Gen. 14. 

The tribe of Hittites grew to be a strong and 
remarkable nation of warriors, extending their con- 
quests into Assyria and far into Asia Minor. Their 
name occurs in Homer"^ under the form of '' Ketaioi '' 
and in the Egyptian annals in the time of the great 
conqueror, Thothmes III., B. C. 1600, wherein it is 
recorded that he received the tribute from the '' chief 
of the great Kheta," or Hittites, which tribute con- 
sisted in gold, slaves, and cattle. Thus it appears 
that in a few centuries after the time when Abram 
bought the cave of Machpelah of the sons of Heth, 
B. C. i860, they had become a great people. Before 
the Exodus they were the powerful rivals of Egypt. 

13. Until recently the expression in the book 
of Joshua (1:4) that the land of the Hittites ex- 
tended ''from Lebanon even unto the great river, 
the river Euphrates,'' seemed to be an exaggeration. 
But the recent discovery of the ruins of their great 
capital, Carchemish, situated upon the Euphrates, 

* Odyssey, Book II., 1. 521. Gladstone's ** Horn. Synchron." pp. 174, 
182. 

Biblical History and Geography. C 



98 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

and the mention of another city not far off, namely 
Pethor, where Balaam dwelt, beside many remains 
extending far into Asia Minor, all prove that it was 
no exaggeration, but historic truth, which is recorded 
in the book of Joshua concerning their extended 
empire. They were finally conquered by the As- 
syrians, and their great cities, Carchemish and Pe- 
thor, captured, 719 years before the Christian era, 
and they never again rose to power. 

The other Canaanitish tribes were unimportant. 

THE LANGUAGE OF CANAAN. 

13. The discovery in A. D. 1868 of the Moabite 

stone, at Dibon, the ruins of which city are twelve 
miles east of the Dead Sea, shows that the Moabites 
in that region spoke a language similar to the 
Hebrew. 

The date of this stone is about 900 B. C. Its 
inscription is a remarkable corroboration of the his- 
tory contained in 2 Kings 3. 

Discoveries at Sidon, a Phoenician town on the 
Mediterranean, and at other places, show that a 
modified Hebrew was very generally the language 
of all the Canaanites. 

14. The pertinacity with which the more de- 
vout and learned of the Israelites held to the 
Hebrew during the captivity in Assyria, and ever 
since amid all nations and lands, proves that they 
never forgot the language which Abraham spoke, 



THE ENTRANCE INTO CANAAN. QQ 

but cherished it during their residence in the land 
of Egypt, and it is probable that before their en- 
trance into Canaan they had entirely ceased to 
speak what little they knew of the Egyptian tongue. 
They were the more able and ready, therefore, to 
receive the ten commandments and all the rest of 
those laws which were written in the Hebrew. And, 
moreover, there could have been very little if any 
difficulty in their understanding the language of 
the inhabitants into whose land they had now come. 

THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF CANAAN. 

15. The land of Canaan was bounded on the 
west by the Mediterranean, on the east by the Jor- 
dan, on the south by the desert, and on the north by 
the mountains of Lebanon. This was the land of 
promise. 

At Jericho the valley of the Jordan is a depressed 
plain about 850 feet below the Mediterranean, and 
the surface of the Dead Sea on the south is still 
lower, being 1,293 feet below the Mediterranean, so 
that from ancient Jericho to the Dead Sea, six 
miles distant, the valley of the Jordan falls rapidly. 

Jerusalem is very nearly due west of the mouth 
of the Jordan, and is placed on the highest land, 
with the exception of the Mount of Olives, between 
the Jordan and the Mediterranean on that line of 
latitude, being about 2,600 feet higher than the sea. 

16. About 60 miles in a straight line due 



lOO BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

north of the Dead Sea the Jordan issues from the 
Sea of Galilee, the waters of which were called, in 
our Saviour's time, the Sea of Tiberias and the Lake 
of Gennesaret. The shape of the lake is oval, but 
broader in the northern half, its length north and 
south being nearly thirteen miles and greatest 
breadth about seven miles. Its surface is 682 feet 
below the level of the Mediterranean and the hills 
on the eastern shore rise to the height of the great 
eastern plateau of the table-land of ancient Bashan, 
which is 2,000 feet above the Mediterranean. The 
waters are fresh and abound with fish. 

17. In the times of Joshua and of the early 
occupation of the land by the Israelites, the lake 
was called Chinnereth (Num. 34:11) and Chinne- 
roth (Josh. 11:2), [^pron. Kin'nereth and Ktn'neroth\ 
and a city of the same name existed on its western 
shore very near the present site of Tiberias. Traces 
of this ancient city have been recently (1887) dis- 
covered just outside the southern walls. 

Ten miles north of the Sea of Galilee is a smaller 
reedy lake four miles long, which is supposed to 
be the *' waters of Merom '' (Josh. 11:5), but now 
known as Huleh by the Arabs. Into the northern 
end the upper Jordan finds its way as it descends 
from the lower parts of Mt. Hermon. The surface of 
this lake is seven feet above the Mediterranean, and 
extended plains are on the west and for several 
miles northward, beyond which the land rapidly 
rises into the mountains. 



THE ENTRANCE INTO CANAAN. lOI 

1 8. The country is uplifted midway between 
the Jordan and the Mediterranean and forms an 
irregularly broad mountainous ridge stretching from 
the far south to the borders of the plain of Esdraelon, 
called in Scripture ''the valley of Megiddo/' This 
plain is the largest in Palestine and extends from 
near the Mediterranean on the west to a valley 
plain near the Jordan valley on the east, where it 
is called the valley of Jezreel. It is generally about 
loo feet above the sea level, or 150 in its highest 
average level. 

In various parts it has been the chosen battle- 
ground of several of the fiercest contests in Biblical 
and in modern warfare. 

North of the plain of Jezreel the land rises again 
into the broken and irregular hill country of Galilee 
until the region of the Lebanon Mountains appears. 



I02 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE BATTLES OF CONQUEST. 

1. The capture of Jericho was not the re- 
sult of battle, but was due to the divine interfer- 
ence in behalf of the Israelites. Jericho was a 
strong city and well defended by strong walls, and 
the destruction of these walls under the simple pro- 
cess described in the text was not only a lesson of 
great significance to the Israelites, but it indicated 
to the Canaanitish tribes the mystery of that power 
with which they were now called to deal. 

Under Joshua three great battles completed the 
general conquest of Canaan and transferred to the 
Israelites the cities of thirty kings, Josh. 12:9-24, 
and if we include the king of Jericho the number 
will be thirty-one. 

Nearly all of the book of Joshua is composed 
of the history of these battles and of the division 
of the land among the tribes after the conquest. 

2. The first of these battles took place on the 
high land west of Jericho, at a town called Ai (pro- 
nounced A-i). The site of this ancient town is 
known, and it was not far off from the site of Beth- 
el, which is 13 miles west by north from the posi- 
tion of Jericho at that time. Ai, now called Haiyan, 
was two miles, or a little more, east of Bethel. 



THE BATTLES OF CONQUEST. IO3 

Just north of Ai is a high elevation, 2,570 feet 
above the Mediterranean, whereas the site of Jer- 
icho at the fountain of Elisha^ is 700 feet below, so 
that the troops of Joshua had a march of about 1,500 
feet ascent up a rocky ravine. Bethel is still higher 
(2,890 feet). 

3. The first great battle of Ai was prece- 
ded by defeat in what may be called a mere skir- 
mish, as only 3,000 were engaged. This defeat 
seems to have been divinely allowed, to place a 
terrible emphasis upon the truth that disobedience 
to the commands of God, even of a small part of the 
people, would certainly be followed by punishment. 

The result was terrible, not only in the national 
mortification consequent upon the defeat, but in 
the lesson that no transgressor could escape either 
by hiding himself or his stolen spoils, which in 
this case had been buried in the ground and covered 
by the tent, Josh. 7: 11-26. 

4. The valley of Achor, where the fearful 
punishment was inflicted, is, without question, the 
present Wady Kelt, near the opening of which, 
upon the plain of Jordan, was the city of Jericho. 

The battle was renewed, all the people of war 
were engaged, and the victory was complete. 

5. Tlie next event of great importance was 
the gathering of all the people in a central part of 
the land at two mountains called Ebal and Gerizim. 
This gathering was in execution of the command 

* Now called Ain es Sultan. 



I04 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

of Moses, Dent. 27, and was intended to cause them 
to renew their covenant with God and to set before 
them the blessings which should be granted upon 
obedience and the curses which should follow dis- 
obedience. 

EBAL AND GERIZIM. 

G. The location for this great gathering 

was admirably chosen. Ebal is a mountain whose 
highest point is 3,077 feet above the Mediterranean. 
Gerizim, right opposite, and southward, is 2,849 i^^^y 
and between them is the valley, whose surface is 
about 1,600 feet above the sea. In this valley, which 
runs east and west, is Shechem, on the southern 
side and partly built upon the ascent of Mt. Gerizim. 
The gathering may have taken place on the west 
of the city, where the valley is bounded on the 
north by that part of the western extent of the 
Ebal range which slightly recedes from the line 
of the valley and takes the form of an amphitheatre. 
But there is ample room on the east, where the 
elevations of both sides are far greater. The valley 
opens eastward upon the great level plain of Moreh, 
several square miles in extent. Where the valley 
opens upon this plain is the well of Jacob (John 
4 : 6), and not far north of this well is the traditional 
tomb of Joseph, Josh. 24: 32, whose embalmed body 
they buried there after they had conquered the 
country. 

7. The vicinity of this well and the former his- 



THE BATTLES OF CONQUEST. I05 

tory made this ground sacred to the Israelites, for 
here was Jacob's first settlement and property, pur- 
chased of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, 
280 years before. Even before that purchase by 
Jacob it was sacred, because that 189 years before 
Jacob's time Abraham built here an altar to the Lord 
after that He had appeared to him and promised to 
give this land unto his seed, Gen. 12:6, 7. 

The altar built here by Joshua, Josh. 8 : 30, was 
therefore the third altar erected in this vicinity, the 
first by Abraham and the second by Jacob, Gen. 
33 : 20. 

It is very probable that the great battle at Ai was 
fought with the view of clearing the way for the 
uninterrupted passage of the entire hosts of Israel to 
the plain just spoken of, called the plain of Moreh, 
which stretches out eastward from the bases of Ebal 
and Gerizim, and was 20 miles north of Ai. 

8. Shechem never was a large town before the 
conquest. After it was despoiled by the sons of 
Jacob and all the inhabitants destroyed or taken cap- 
tive, Gen. 34, it does not appear as re-settled until 
after the arrival of the Israelites at their first great 
national convention at Ebal, as described in the 
eighth chapter of the book of Joshua. 

9. The second great battle or campaign began 
at Gibeon. This place has been identified with an 
elevated ruin five and a half miles northwest of Jeru- 
salem. It should be remembered that the Israelites 
returned to the camp at Gilgal near the ford of the 

5* 



Io6 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

Jordan, this being tlieir first great camping-place, 
and remaining such during their first seven^ years, 
until they removed to Shiloh and set up the Taber- 
nacle in that place, Josh. i8 : i. 

During the second campaign Joshua conquered 
nearly all the southern half of Palestine. 

10. The third great campaign began with the 
greatest battle of the conquest, at the waters of Me- 
rom, Josh. 11:5. Here a great plain exists eight or 
nine miles in extent north and south, having the 
waters of the lake with a part of the upper stream of 
the Jordan on the east border. In this battle the 
Israelites came off victors, and then followed a series 
of reprisals, which with previous wars consumed 
about five years. 

During all these years the women and children, 
with the herds and flocks, remained at Gilgal on the 
plains of the Jordan near Jericho. 

11. Tlie next great move was to Shiloh. This 
place was upon the highland 2,230 feet above the 
sea, nineteen miles north of Jerusalem and about the 
same distance from the camping-ground at Gilgal. 
We suppose that the Gilgal of this time was about 
three miles southeast of ancient Jericho and at the 
pool now called that of Jiljulieh. 

Some remains of Shiloh, now called Seilun, yet 
appear, partly on a low hill surrounded by higher 
hills. Jerome says that in his time, A. D. 340-420, it 
was in ruins. The top of the hill has been levelled 

* Ussher's time as in the margin of our Bibles. 



THE BATTLES OF CONQUEST. 10/ 

for several hundred feet, where are found some an- 
cient foundations and hewn stones, and here, as is 
supposed, was the site of the Tabernacle. A little 
over a half-mile to the northeast is a spring called 
the spring of Seilun, and a pool where the seizure of 
the young women described in Judg. 21 : 19-23 might 
very easily have taken place. 

13. Sliiloh remained the religious capital and 
the city where the Ark and the Tabernacle rested for 
about 300 years, until the Ark was removed to the 
battlefield, i Sam. 4:3, and captured by the Philis- 
tines, after which it was never returned to Shiloh. 
The Tabernacle and the brazen altar were also re- 
moved and set up at Gibeon before the Temple at 
Jerusalem was built, i Chron. 16: 39 ; 21 129, 30. Gib- 
eon was five and a half miles northwest of Jerusalem 
and 2,535 f^^t above the sea. 

For the history of the capture of the Ark, its res- 
toration to Israel, and its remaining at Kirjath-jearim 
many years before its placement in the Temple at 
Jerusalem, read i Sam. 4 and 6 with 7:1, and 2 Sam. 
6, also I Kin. 8 : 1-8. 

The tradition that the Ark was hidden by the 
prophet Jeremiah in a cavern in Mt. Pisgah has 
arisen from a statement in the second book of Mac- 
cabees, 2 Mac. 2 -.4, written about B. C. 144. But be- 
fore this time there was a tradition among the Jews, 
which was recorded in the Babylonian Talmud,^ that 
the Ark was hidden in a chamber of the Temple 

* The Talmud is described hereafter. 



I08 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

buildings, and out of this seems to have grown the 
other and later tradition. The Ark was probably 
burned at the destruction of the Temple under Neb- 
uchadnezzar, B. C. 588, 2 Chron. 36: 19. 

13. Kirjatli-jearim^ where the Ark remained 
so long, I Sam. 7 : 2, was seven miles west by north 
of Jerusalem. In this connection it is necessary to 
say that, while the statement in i Sam. 7 : 2 leaves 
the impression in the English translation that 20 
years was the whole time during which the Ark 
remained at that place, yet '* the sense clearly ex- 
pressed in the original " is that from the first placing 
of the Ark at Kirjath-jearim 20 years transpired of 
anxious expectation that Jehovah would interpose 
for the deliverance of his people before that Samuel 
gave them any hope.*^ 

The Ark remained at Kirjath-jearim from about 
the time of Eli's death through the reign of Saul 
and until David took it from thence to Jerusalem, 
with the exception of the three months during which 
it was at the house of Obed-edom, 2 Sam. 6. That 
was from about B. C. 1140 to B. C. 1042, or nearly 
one hundred years. 

14. The next great work performed at Shiloh 
was the division of the land among the tribes of 
Israel. At this time, about 1444 B. C, we have the 
first recorded survey, and this was described by the 
cities then existing and '' in a book," which was prob- 
ably attended with the first map of the land. 

* Bishop Horsley. 



THE BATTLES OF CONQUEST. IO9 

Of the twelve tribes, the Levites received no dis- 
trict in the division, they having been devoted to the 
service of the Tabernacle. Of the remaining eleven 
tribes, Manasseh had a section of land east of the 
Jordan as well as one west. 

15. After this division the appointment of six 
cities of refuge was made both east and west of the 
Jordan, and very nearly equally distributed north 
and south. Of these six cities only the three west of 
the Jordan have been identified with present towns. 
One was Kedesh, now called Kades, four miles west 
by north of the *' waters of Merom.'' It was on a 
hill overlooking the plain on the west of the ''wa- 
ters," which are now known by the name of the Lake 
of el-Huleh. The second city of refuge west of the 
Jordan was Shechem, sixty-three miles towards the 
south ; and the third Hebron, eighteen miles south 
of Jerusalem and about fifty south of Shechem. 
Those east of Jordan were probably very nearly on 
the same latitude, namely, Golan, east of Kedesh ; 
Ramoth in Gilead, east of Shechem, probably iden- 
tified with the town now called es Salt, twelve miles 
east of Jordan on an elevation 2,500 feet above the 
Mediterranean and twenty miles north of the Dead 
Sea ; and Bezer, not yet identified, but east of the 
Dead Sea, on the plains of Reuben. 

16. The object of this appointment of cities 
of refuge was to protect the unintentional manslayer 
from the vengeance of his pursuer. Any one who 
had " unwittingly *' Josh. 20 : 3, slain a man might fly 



no BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

to the nearest city of refuge and '' declare his cause 
in the ears of the elders of that city," and dwell there 
until his case was decided by '' the congregation for 
judgment" and until the death of the high-priest. 
The guilty party, if an intentional manslayer, was 
delivered up to the avenger. See Deut. ig : ii. 

The cities of refuge, as we have seen, were as 
equally distributed throughout the land as the posi- 
tions of important and accessible cities would admit. 

m. The blood feud had existed for centuries 
under the traditionary demand of '' a life for a life," 
and this demand, without the slightest regard to the 
intention of the manslayer, was customary and even 
obligatory, so that the nearest relative of the slain 
man was charged with the duty of destroying the 
manslayer whenever a favorable opportunity present- 
ed itself. This custom was modified by the appoint- 
ment of the cities of refuge and by the institution of 
laws associated with their appointment, so that there- 
after the innocent slayer should not suffer equally 
with the guilty, although the fact that he had shed 
blood even unintentionally would subject him to the 
inconvenience of separation from his family for a 
time. 

18. The rehearsal of the Law at the great con- 
vention at Shechem, the division of the land among 
the tribes, and the appointment of cities of refuge^ 
were equally in accordance with the directions of 

* Deut. 27:12; 11:30; Num. 34:13-29; Exod. 21:13; Num. 35:6, 11, 
14; Deut. 19:2, 9. 



THE BATTLES OF CONQUEST. Ill 

Moses, and they followed upon the entrance and con- 
quest as soon as it was possible to carry them into 
execution. The three events are therefore in accord- 
ance with the spirit of the times and the provisions 
of the law, and are properly connected with the age 
of Joshua, although some writers have thought that 
the appointment of the cities of refuge took place 
some centuries later. 



112 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE INTRODUCTION OF IDOLATRY. 

1. During the life of Joshua and of the elders 
or officers who outlived their leader and were ac- 
quainted with the early history of the nation, the 
Israelites held to their obedience to and reverence 
for the Mosaic law in all its bearings upon them. 
But after this era of about thirty years a remarkable 
defection took place, and the generation which grew 
up was drawn into alliances and such social inter- 
course with the inhabitants that many were won over 
to the faith and rites of Canaanitish idolatry. 

2. It should he remembered that these Ca- 
naanitish tribes were not only possessed of riches, 
but they showed considerable advance in the knowl- 
edge of art, and their idolatries were attended by a 
degree of mystery and splendor which we are not 
accustomed to attribute to them. These conditions 
are only suggested by certain intimations in the 
Scriptural records, but plainly shown by recent dis- 
coveries, wherein the luxuries and riches of these 
nations are described by the victors in their records 
of tribute and capture, as we have shown. 

3. The fascination of this splendid idolatry had 
its influence upon the people who had spent their 
early lives in the monotony of the desert and of a 



THE INTRODUCTION OF IDOLATRY. II3 

worship which was devoid of images or of anything 
which could impress itself upon the sight, except 
the distant and inaccessible pillar of fire and cloud 
or the rarely seen and approachless Ark, with a few 
other objects of which many had only occasionally 
heard. But in the land of the Canaanites and of 
their own tribes they met the symbols of the worship 
of Baal and of Ashtoreth upon almost every high hill 
and in every beautiful grove ; they saw their sacred 
sculptures frequently and their ornamented temples, 
some remains of which are found upon the mount- 
ains of Lebanon at the present day. And those 
who could not see them were daily entertained with 
vivid descriptions of the altars and the gold and sil- 
ver ornaments associated with the worship of the 
moon as Ashtoreth and of the sun as Baal. 

4. Baal was the chief god of Canaan, whose 
worship was manifold and spread through the Ca- 
naanitish tribes under varied names, which, though 
differing in form, always vSUggested the same cruel 
or obscene worship. Hence the term in Scripture 
Baalim,^ the plural of Baal. Thus there was the 
Baal-thammuz, Ezek. 8:14; Baal-moloch (the fire 
Baal), 2 Kin. 23:10; Baal-zebub, 2 Kin. 1:2, pre- 
siding over that decomposition which gave rise to 
new life, for zebub, '' flies,'' symbolized that life ; 
hence the Jewish form in the time of Christ of Beel- 
zebub as a burlesque upon the word and worship, 
since zebul (the Greek in the New Testament) was a 

* The affix " im " to a word was equivalent to the letter s in English, 

Biblical History and Geography. 



114 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

sarcasm intended to mean du^tg, and Satan was thus 
contemptuously called lord of the dung -heap or 
Beelzebul. A change of place also changed the 
form of the name — Baal-hermon, Baal-hazor, Baal- 
meon, etc. 

5. The worship of Baal and of Ashtoreth was 
attended by great cruelty and debauchery. These 
features were stamped upon all the ceremonies of 
their worship and the precepts of their religion. 
No other people ever rivalled them in the mix- 
ture of bloodshed and debauchery.^ Every influ- 
ence for good seemed to have been banished from 
their religion. Their most frightful worship was 
that of Baal-moloch, referred to above. In this chil- 
dren were burned alive by their parents ; and this 
practice in honor of Baal was carried by the Phoeni- 
cians even to Carthage, where it became an institu- 
tion of the State. 

6. It was to avoid the contamination of 
these various idolatries that Moses commanded the 
extermination of the Canaanites, and it was due to 
the fact that they permitted the Canaanites to reside 
among them that the Israelites soon fell into their 
ways of worship, and in after years they were led in 
some degree to adopt even the rites of the bloody 
Moloch. 

* Lenormant, Vol. II., p. 223. 



THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES. II5 

PERIOD IV. 

THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES. 

ABOUT B. C. 1402-1060 (USSHER), BUT FROM HISTORY APPARENTLY 
OVER 400 YEARS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE NATURE OF THE OFFICE. THE CHRONOLOGY. 

1. Soon after the death, of Joshua the con- 
quest of the land was continued under the lead of the 
tribe of Judah. But the Israelites soon began to be 
ainliated with the inhabitants. Intermarriages, com- 
mercial and social intercourse brought about the 
change whereby the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth 
took the place of the ancient service of the God of 
their fathers, and the Israelites seemed to be given 
up to the idolatries of the surrounding nations. 

2. A long series of captivities and servitudes 
now began which introduced a new class of public 
officers, called Judges, who united the office of 
general-in-chief and of referee in civil cases, thus 
partaking somewhat of the duties indicated by. the 
name '' judge '' by which they are called in Scrip- 
ture. 

3. But the duties of the so-called judge varied 



Il6 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

with the times and the person. Gideon declined to 
rule, delegating all rule to Jehovah, and acted only 
as deliverer. His son Abimelech coveted the office 
of king, and was the only king during this period 
and the first king in any part of Israel. Eli judged 
Israel 40 years, i Sam. 4: 18, and was a noted high- 
priest. Samuel judged all the days of his life, i Sam. 
7:15, and was also the first of the long unbroken 
series of prophets, uniting with this accredited and 
newly created office that of sacrifice and intercession 
for the people, i Sam. 7:5. Samuel closed the line 
of Judges. 

4. The period of the Judges presents us with 
a most singular form of government and totally un- 
like any other form which either had preceded or 
did succeed it. These rulers were generally divinely 
appointed, but at times seem to have been elected by 
the people, as in the case of Jephthah and Abime- 
lech, Judg. 11:6; 9:3. 

5. The most remarkaWe fact connected with 
the history of the times of the Judges, from about 
B. C. 1 400- 1 060, is found in the private and public 
idolatry of the Israelites. This idolatry should be 
considered in view of the covenant their fathers had 
solemnly made at Sinai, and more especially in view 
of the warnings by Moses, reiterated by Joshua, and 
despite the consecration of themselves at Shechem. 
Many who were living at this time had formed a part 
of the great convention of consecration and covenant 
held under Joshua. Notwithstanding all these prom- 



THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES. 11/ 

ises of loyalty to God, there seems to have been no 
form of idolatry into which they did not fall. The 
cause of this strange defection is very forcibly pre- 
sented in Judg. 3 : 5-8. 

Another remarkable feature of this age is seen in 
the renewals of idolatry after equally repeated deliv- 
erances from distressful servitudes followed by tem- 
porary reforms. 

6. One constant cause of the persistent idola- 
try was doubtless to be found in the continued social 
relations of the Israelites with the tribes of the Ca- 
naanites. The wisdom of the forewarnings of Moses, 
Deut. 7:3-5, and of Joshua, and of the command 
made very early in their history that the Canaanites 
should be driven out from the land, and that no 
association should be had with them, is now very 
apparent, Exod. 34: 1 6. The non-observance of the 
command was followed by these intimate relations all 
over the land. At least seven tribes are named, Judg. 
I, as living together with the Canaanites. Even Ju- 
dah, Benjamin, and the Jebusites dwelt in Jerusalem 
together at this time. Josh. 15 : 63 and Judg. 1:21. 

7. The Canaanites therefore ivere admit- 
ted into the nation of Israelites by a kind of natural- 
ization, and they brought in with them their customs 
and idolatries, although they themselves were made 
tributary. 

8. The history of the times of the Judges is 
derived mainly from the books of Judges, Ruth, and 
I Samuel. But considerable light is added from the 



Il8 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

records of surrounding nations, especially from those 
of the Egyptians. In a poem by the poet laureate of 
the times of Rameses 11. , B. C. 1350, it is asserted 
that the Hittites in a battle on the plain of Esdraelon 
had 2,500 chariots of war. This was before the 
Israelites left Egypt, and the monuments record that 
Rameses III. captured 994 Canaanitish chariots. 

The goddess Ashtoreth was, according to Naville, 
the patroness of war-chariots, and although the char- 
iots taken by Joshua were drawn by horses, Josh. 
11:6, we find them on some of the monuments repre- 
sented as drawn by oxen, and it is said that oxen 
have been trained to run fast. 

It should be remembered that the use of scythes 
or swords attached to the wheels or sides of chariots 
does not appear to have been in vogue until after 
this period."^ 

9. The Israelites had no war chariots until the 
time of David, 2 Sam. 8 : 4, and it is highly improba- 
ble that at that time they were used for war pur- 
poses, but only as baggage or forage wagons, and the 
remaining number taken in battle were disjointed, 
crippled, or destroyed, as the Hebrew text is transla- 
ted in the Septuagint, and not that the horses were 
'' houghed,''f as in our English version. 

10. Solomon, B. C. 992, gathered chariots from 
Egypt and horses, although he was a man of peace, 

* Geikie, Vol. II., p. 466. 

t Meaning " hamstrung." Our version puts horses in italics, show- 
ing that it is not in the original. 



THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES. 



119 



and it does not appear for what purpose the chariots 
were used except for display ; but the act was cer- 
tainly in direct violation of the law, Deut. 17: 14-20, 
and marked the beginning of that king's departure 
from the service of Jehovah. 

11. The clironolog'y of the times of the 
Judges is not clearly made out. It cannot be deter- 
mined that the Judges all reigned consecutively or 
that any one Judge had authority over any larger 
district than that of a few tribes. The Scriptural 
order seems to be as follows : 



Conquerors. 


Duration of 
servitude. 


The Judge. 


Duration in ofSce, 
or "Rest." 


Began to rule B. C. 
(UsPherj. 


Chushan-rishathaim 


8 years. 
18 '^ 
? 

20 " 

7 






1402 
1394 
1354 
1336 


Eglon 


Othniel 


40 years. 




Ehud 


80 years. 


Philistines 


Shamgar- _,^ 


Jabin, a Canaanite 
king at Hazor -__ 

M i d i a n i t e s and 
Amalekites, etc 


I316 

1296 
1256 
1249 
1209 
1206 


Deborah and Ba- 
rak 


40 years. 




Gideon 


40 years. 

4 ■■ 

22 '' 


Civil war 


Abimelech 

Tola 




18 " 
40 " 




Jair 


1 183 
1 161 


Philistines and Am- 
mon_ 






Jephthah 

Ibzau _ _ ___ 


6 years. 
8 " 


1 143 

1 130 
1 1 20 




Elon_ _ _ _ 




Abdon 


Philistines 




1112 




Samson 

Eli 

Samuel 

SAUL — 


20 years. 

40 '' 
All the days 
of his life, 
I Sam. 7: 15. 


dies 1060 
1095 

FIRST YEAR 
OF REIGN. 









I20 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

The period of the Judges closed at the time when 
Saul was appointed king, B. C. 1095. Joshua died 
B. C. 1426, as is supposed, but some'^ have thought 
that at least thirty years passed between the death of 
Joshua and the first servitude, and the general opin- 
ion is that at least four hundred years, or even four 
hundred and fifty, must be taken as the length of 
time from Joshua to Saul, the first king. By adding 
the time of the servitudes and those of the rules of 
the Judges, including the time from the death of 
Joshua, we have about the sum stated in Acts 1 3 : 20. 
But it is difficult to reconcile the chronology of this 
period with that of other periods because of the want 
of sufficient fulness of statement in the history of 
the Judges.! 

* Browne in *' Ordo Saeculorum," Vol. I., chap. 5, sec. 3. 
t For another solution of the chronology of this period see the ** Old 
Testament Student," January, 1884- 



THE SCRIBES OF THE AGE. 121 



CHAPTER 11. 

THE SCRIBES OF THE AGE. 

1. It should be remembered that during 

these ages in all prominent nations the office of 

scribe or historian was a very important one, the 
existence of which was very general. Before the 
Exodus the historians accompanied the kings of 
Egypt and Assyria in their expeditions. Several 
references to such persons are found in the Scrip- 
tures, 2 Kin. 25:19; 2 Chron. 26:11, as especially 
belonging to the army. They are called " remem- 
brancers " and ''writers of chronicles" or "record- 
ers " in the time of David, 2 Sam. 8:16. There were 
also poets, who described the events of the national 
history or the prowess of the king, not only in Egypt 
and Assyria, long before David, but also in Israel. 
The book of Jasher referred to in Josh. 10:13 and 
2 Sam. 1:18 was probably a poetic history of heroic 
acts, very similar to one discovered in Egypt, called 
the poem of Pentaur, celebrating the courage of the 
Pharaoh, Rameses IL, who was contemporary with 
Moses. 

3. The number of writers of different kinds 
must have been much greater than is generally 
supposed. At a very early period during the resi- 
dence of the Israelites in Egypt the taskmasters were 

6 



122 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

always accompanied with ''writers," called ''officers'' 
in our version, Exod. 5 : 6, and we find them pictured 
on the monuments^ with their tablets and reeds, wri- 
ting even while walking. The children of Israel 
had scribes also on their brick-fields to check off the 
records of those who wrote for the taskmasters, Exod. 
5:15, 19. So also the Judges in "the gates''"^ had 
their writers, Deut. 16: 18, also called "officers/' 

Writers were employed for such engineering pur- 
poses as are recorded in Josh. 18:9, and these were 
not simply draughtsmen who mapped the country in 
a book, but also recorded the position of cities, of 
which not less than four hundred and eleven are 
mentioned by name. 

3. In more recent times there arose the class 
of writers called by the Hebrews " Sopherlm '' or 
"scribes," who appear to have been high officers of 
the State or secretaries, recording edicts of the king 
besides the many important occurrences of history. 

4. That writers or scribes existed at so early 
a period as that when the Israelites were in the des- 
ert is certain from the statement in Num. 11:16, 
where Moses is commanded to assemble these wri- 
ters with the seventy elders. It is plain from these 
instances that there were numbers in the camp who 
were expert writers, and it is highly probable that 
many of the people were instructed through their 
writings, not only then, but during all the residence 
of the Israelites in Canaan. 

* The place where the courts were held. 



THE SCRIBES OF THE AGE. 1 23 

5. There were men then, as now, peculiar- 
ly fitted to record current events, or interested in 
genealogy, or gifted with poetic talent, and their 
inclinations led them to make records which were 
interesting at those periods, or to make '' books '' 
which were known to be faithful and authentic ; and 
hence in no less than fourteen instances there seem 
to be references to such books throughout the Old 
Testament writings : Num. 21 : 14; Josh. 10 : 13 ; 
I Sam. 10:25; I Kin. 4:32, 33; 11:41; i Chron. 
27:24; 29 : 29 ; 2 Chron. 9 : 29 ; 12: 15 ; 13 : 22 ; 12: 15 ; 
20:34; 33-19; 35:25. 

6. It is certain therefore that in the times of 
the monarchy public records were carefully 
kept, and even long before that time the people were 
not without their historians, who wrote down all im- 
portant events and preserved and copied writings for 
others then living and for those who should come 
after them. 



124 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

PERIOD V. 

THE PERIOD OF THE HIHCS TO THE CAP^ 
TIYITY. 

FROM B. C. ABOUT 1095 TO B. C. 588, 507 YEARS. 



CHAPTER I. 

ORIGIN OF THE MONARCHY. REIGN OF SAUL. 

1. One of the most evident results of the inti- 
mate associations of the Israelites with the Ca- 
naanitish tribes was the desire to have a king. 

In the transition from the era of the Judges to 
that of the Kings there arose a man whose earli- 
est days had been passed in the precincts of the Tab- 
ernacle at Shiloh under the care of Eli, the priest and 
judge of Israel. He seems to have been one whose 
evident piety and clear and manly judgment had 
impressed the people with a reverence for him from 
his earliest days. No other person in the times of 
the Judges seems to have been known so universally 
as uniting in one man divine authority and wisdom, 
and of no other had it been said that '' all Israel, from 
Dan to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was estab- 
lished to be a prophet of the Lord," i Sam. 3 : 20. 



ORIGIN OF THE MONARCHY. 12$ 

2. With Samuel, as we have said, the line of 
the Judges closes. By divine direction he gratified 
the demands of the people by appointing Saul king 
over Israel, but not without a solemn warning as to 
the despotism with which the kings, in the future, 
would rule over them. 

The whole land now becomes united under one 
ruler as a king, but at the same time strongly in- 
fluenced by the prophetic authority of Samuel, who 
seems never to have lost power, either over the 
people or the king. 

3. Dan and Beersheba were towns which in 
common speech limited the whole land, the former 
on the north, the later on the south. Dan was the 
name of only the tribe on the Mediterranean west 
of Jerusalem until the time that a colony from 
this tribe migrated to the extreme north of Canaan, 
beyond all the tribes, and drove out a company of 
Sidonians who had settled by themselves near the 
southern parts of Mt. Hermon, in a place before 
called Laish. This town the Danites conquered, 
and, taking possession of the place, named it Dan, 
after their ancestor. 

Scarcely anything remains of this ancient city, 
but its location, called Tel el-Kady is beautiful, at 
the head of the plain of Huleh, nearly twenty-five 
miles north of the Sea of Galilee. There are two fine 
springs at the ancient site and the elevation is 505 
feet above the Mediterranean, which is twenty-five 
miles distant, on the west, to a point near the city 



126 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

of Tyre, which then existed. Dan was in the region 
assigned to the tribe of Naphtali. 

4. Beersheba was exactly 148 miles south-south- 
west of Dan. Here the only remains consist of two 
very ancient large wells. The site still bears the 
ancient name and is twenty-seven miles southwest 
from Hebron. The wells contain excellent water 
and show the rope-grooves of many centuries in 
the massive stones with which they are lined and 
curbed. 

5 The introduction of Saul to the full pos- 
session of the kingly office and authority was after 
his first battle, near a place east of the Jordan, 
called Jabesh-gilead. 

The Ammonites had come up against this city 
from the south and demanded its unconditional sur- 
render. In their distress they sent to their brethren, 
at Gibeah, where Saul resided. Saul seems to have 
had, at this time, but little to do as king, and it was 
not until he returned from the field, where he had 
been attending to his cattle, that on inquiry he 
learned the condition of the inhabitants of Jabesh- 
gilead and their appeal for help to their brethren, 
who were publicly lamenting their inability to give 
them any aid. 

6. Saul immediately hewed a yoke of 
oxen into pieces, and sending messengers with 
pieces of the oxen throughout the entire land of 
Israel, made wise use of the name of Samuel in 
union with his own, in the , threat, '' Whosoever 



ORIGIN OF THE MONARCHY. 12/ 

Cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so 
shall it be done unto his oxen," i Sam. 11:7. 

No such universal call to united effort had before 
sounded over the land for ages. It was the sword 
of the king and the authority of Samuel the prophet 
of the Lord, and the call "was honored from Dan to 
Beersheba. The messengers from the besieged city 
were hurried back with the cheering reply from the 
gathering army, '' To-morrow by that time the sun 
be hot ye shall have help," i Sam. 11:9. 

JABESH-GILEAD. 

•7. Jabesli-gUead is not certainly identified, 
but it was not far off from a valley known as Wady 
Jabes, or Yabes, about twenty miles southeast of 
the Sea of Galilee, in the land cf Gilead. 

Bezek, where the hosts gathered before they 
started to cross the Jordan, was some plain near 
the Jordan not yet identified. 

8. Three hundred and thirty thousand 
of Israel gathered themselves together in three 
bands and hastily crossed the Jordan in the night, 
and before the heat of day they had slain and routed 
the Ammonites in the greatest battle that had been 
known in Canaan for several centuries. 

So great was the reaction from the long-contin- 
ued indifference to united effort, and especially to 
the publicly expressed lack of confidence in Saul, 
that, in keeping with their rude manners, they de- 



128 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

manded the immediate execution of those who had 
spoken against the king. 

9. But Samuel turned this feeling* into 
another channel. He summoned a great gathering 
similar to the one called by Joshua 300 years before 
at Shechem, but at this time the assembly was at 
Gilgal. Here they renewed their promises to God 
and to the king. This was the Gilgal which was 
upon the plains of Jericho, and of which we have 
already spoken. 

10. Saul now became kin^ in its fullest 
sense. His first act was to appoint a standing army 
of 3,000. By an ill-timed attack upon an outpost 
of the Philistines the anger of that entire nation 
was aroused at a time when the Israelites were 
unprepared to meet them. Samuel was called upon 
for advice and service, but Saul's impatience and 
disobedience to the directions of the prophet dis- 
couraged Samuel so greatly that he withdrew from 
Saul. Jonathan by a stratagem ' executed in the 
night, I Sam. 14, created a panic in the Philistine 
army, and the Israelites, gathering together from 
various hiding-places to which they had fled in 
their fear, joined in pursuit, until the Philistines 
were driven back to their own country, which was 
upon the southwest coast of Palestine about forty 
miles distant. 

But the repeated instances of disobedience, cou- 
pled with deception, on the part of Saul led Samuel 
to withdraw from the king entirely and for ever, and 



ORIGIN OF THE MONARCHY. 1 29 

by divine appointment he anointed David, in pri- 
vate, to be successor to Saul. David's appointment 
was suspected, and it aroused the bitter jealousy of 
the king, which was shown by his continued pursuit 
and persecution of David, until the great and final 
battle of Saul's reign, which took place on the plain 
of Jezreel, against the Philistines, about B. C. 1056. 

SAUL'S LAST BATTLE. 

11. This battle, with its associated geography 
and incidental history, requires some knowledge of 
the localities of Shunem, Gilboa, and En-dor. 

The Philistines, with whom Saul was soon to 
contend, had approached the great plain of Esdrae- 
lon from their coast on the southwest. They had 
passed up the plain of Sharon northward along the 
shore of the Great Sea and entered through the pass 
of Mt. Carmel, which range limits this plain on the 
southwest, and thus they had entered the plain 
which we have already described, page loi. 

Saul had gathered his army, and passing north- 
ward along the central elevated ridge, had reached 
the same plain at the town of En-gannim, which 
is on the edge of the southern border and overlooks 
the plain. Shunem was ten miles north. Here the 
Philistines were now gathering in their forces from 
the west, since the pass is sixteen miles * west of 
Shunem. 

It is an interesting fact that Gen. Kleber, under 
Napoleon I. in his battle with the Turks, 1799, drew 

Biblical History aud Geography. O 



130 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

Up his smaller army of fifteen hundred in a square 
occupying exactly the same ground which a part 
of the Philistine army covered at this time, while 
the Turks with their twenty-five thousand covered 
more of the same battle-ground on the north."^ 

13. Shunem, now called Solam, is on the west 
and southern end of the short hill range running 
east, and supposed to be the hill of Moreh, but the 
Philistines occupied the plain on the south of this 
ridge-end, for Saul's army was across the valley on 
the west end of Mt. Gilboa and immediately opposite 
the Philistines. Between the two armies was the 
valley of Jezreel running down eastward to Beth- 
shean in the valley of Jordan. The town of Jezreel, 
which gave name to the valley, was south of Shu- 
nem — Shunem on the Philistines' side, Jezreel on 
that of Saul. 

Just one mile and a half southeast of the valley 
of Jezreel is the '* Fountain of Jezreel," now a large 
body of water fed by a spring called Ain Jalud. This 
is probably both the Fountain of Jezreel of i Sam. 
29 : 1, and the '' water '* referred to in Judg. 7:4. It 
is also the ''well of Harod " of the first verse. 

It was just two centuries before this battle that 
Gideon at this place obtained his great victory over 
the Midianites, and it was, perhaps, chosen by Saul 
because of the fountain. 

13. As Saul had more than 300,000 warriors 
in his battle with the Ammonites and was as fully 

* Burckhardt's "Travels," p. 339. 



ORIGIN OF THE MONARCHY. 131 

aware of the seriousness of a conflict with the Phi- 
listines as he was there with the Ammonites, it is 
probable that he brought into the field as many as 
he then had. The Philistines had a much larger 
number than Saul, and the total number therefore 
in conflict could not have been less than 700,000. 

The evening before the morning of the battle 
Saul came fully to the conclusion that the Philistines 
were too strong for the forces under his command. 
In his forlorn belief in the spirit world and in the 
existence of Samuel, although three years dead, 
he determined upon an interview with the prophet 
if it were possible by a witch's power of incantation 
to obtain it. As soon as it was dark, Saul, disguised, 
and with two trusty servants, crossed the valley 
from Gilboa northward to the village of En-dor, 
where in the caves near at hand there dwelt such a 
woman as he sought. The distance from the Foun- 
tain of Jezreel is about seven miles north. The 
interview with Samuel, which seems to have been 
as unlooked for and as terrible to the witch as it 
was dreadful and disheartening to Saul, is recorded 
in I Sam. 28:3-25. 

14. Early the next day the battle began. The 
place called Aphek, where the main centre or head- 
quarters of the Philistines was located, is not known, 
but was probably a mile southwest of Shunem, where 
the left wing of the army extended upon the line of 
its approach. The Philistines had the army of Saul 
at terrible disadvantage from the fact that his troops 



132 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

were drawn up southeast of them against the foot of 
Gilboa and slightly covering its sides, and thus ele- 
vated to the shafts of the archers. It was at about 
this age that the bow in war was used with terrible 
fatality by some of the African nations, and the Phi- 
listines had added this weapon to their javelins and 
short arms.^ 

15. It "was a battle of arrows against swords 
and slings, and the archers won the victory, and after 
a long day's fearful contest Saul and his three sons 
lay dead among the defeated thousands that covered 
the flanks of Gilboa. 

Beth-shean was in sight eastward down the val- 
ley of Jezreel. It probably was never a Jewish but 
always a Canaanitish city, and here the Philistines 
the next day carried the headless trunk of Saul's body 
and nailed it upon the outside walls with the bodies 
of his sons, while the salted head of the king was 
sent to the land of the victors to be carried around 
through the cities of the Philistines on exhibition. 

Large numbers of the Philistines now took pos- 
session of the vacated cities, and many of the Israel- 
ites crossed the Jordan to find other homes until bet- 
ter times should come. 

ZIKLAG AND THE SOUTH COUNTRY. 

16. Among the vast numbers of the Philis- 
tine army, as they came upon the plain from Mt. 

- Osburn's "Ancient Egypt," p. 138. London. Samuel Bagster & 
Sons. 



ORIGIN OF THE MONARCHY. 1 33 

Carmel, David's royal friend, King Achish, occupied 
the rear, and David and his small band would be dis- 
tinguished from the lack of the conventional army 
uniform, which could be seen at a great distance. 
The appearance of the Philistines in war was spe- 
cially distinguishable from that of all other warriors 
by a peculiar head-dress and tightly-fitting tunic, 
leaving the arms bare. 

But David's presence formed ground for sus- 
picion, and he was dismissed to return with his men 
to Zlklag. The situation of this place is not 
known, but from various circumstances it could not 
have been far off from the hill country of Judasa and 
in the general vicinity and south of Gath, since 
Achish, who gave him the place, was king of that 
city."^ 

17. On his return to Ziklag, finding that the 
Amalekites of the far south had burned his city and 
carried off all the families, David and his men pur- 
sued after them, recovered all, and returned to Zik- 
lag. "The south" was a special term for that 
country beginning somewhere about Beersheba and 
reaching fifty or sixty miles south, and perhaps far- 
ther. 

18. The duration of Saul's relg^n was about 
forty years, or as the commonly received chronology 
presents it, from 1095 B. C. to 1056 B. C, and at the 

* The place assigned as probable, namely, Astug, is an impossible 
site, for Ziklag after the Captivity is located between Beersheba and 
Jerusalem, and Astug was at that time too far off for settlement by re- 
turned captives. 



134 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

latter date Saul and his eldest son Jonathan died 
upon the battlefield. 

In this great battle the Philistines, as we have 
said, used bows and arrows, and in this respect had 
a great advantage over the Israelites, who were not 
taught the use of this instrument in war until after 
this battle, 2 Sam. 1:18, and in the reign of David. 



THE REIGNS OF DAVID AND OF SOLOMON. 1 35 

CHAPTER II. 

THE REIGNS OF DAVID AND OF SOLOMON. 

1. Upon the death of Saul and Jonathan the 

kingdom of Israel was ruled by two king's, David 
and the son of Saul, Ish-bosheth, whom Abner, the 
captain-general of Saul's host, had made king over 
all Israel excepting Judah, which was loyal to Da- 
vid, 2 Sam. 2 : 4. Saul's son reigned only two years, 
when he was assassinated by two of his '' captains of 
bands." After this event the chief men of Israel 
came to David, who was at Hebron, and entered into 
a league with him, by which he became king over all 
Israel at the age of forty years. 

After seven years of reign at Hebron he attacked 
the city of the Jebusites, 18 miles north of Hebron. 
This place was known as Jerusalem in after ages, 
although at that time called Jebus, i Chron. 11:4. 
The position of Jebus was an exceedingly strong one. 

3. From recent examinations, by shafts and 
excavations, the site of the Jebus of David's time 
was a rocky eminence, precipitous towards the east, 
south, and southwest, with access on other sides ex- 
cept for a short space on the north. The top was 
unevenly level, but only a part of this top seems to 
have been occupied by the city of Jebus, the south- 
ern part having a fortification distinct from the 



136 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

walled-up portion on the north and northeast. This 
part was taken by David on his arrival, and the re- 
maining part, after some delay, was captured in a 
very courageous attack by an officer whose name was 
Joab. 

3. The present circumference of the walls 
of Jerusalem is 2| miles very nearly ; but although 
these walls include the larger part of the hill, there 
still remains a portion, called Mt. Zion, on the south- 
west, which is not included, and it is this part that 
was captured by David and was called the city of 
David or Zion. 

Due west from the city the Mediterranean is 36 
miles distant and the Jordan is 18 miles due east. 
On the east side, in the time of David, a part of the 
city wall rose nearly 100 feet above the channel of the 
Kidron, and from the representations of fortified cities 
of these times, as they are met with upon the tablets 
both of Egypt and of Assyria, the stones of the walls 
were placed with great skill. Some of the ancient 
stones of the city are even now laid upon solid rock 
eighty feet below the soil at the base of the present 
wall on the east side and the southeast corner. 

4. The reign of David was noted for success- 
ful wars with the Philistines on the southwest, the 
Amalekites on the south, the Moabites and Ammon- 
ites on the east of Jordan and the Dead Sea, the 
Syrians in the region of Damascus, together with 
a king on the north. From the circumstances nar- 
rated, this king must have been one of great wealth 



THE REIGNS OF DAVID AND OF SOLOMON. 1 37 

and power and was probably a king of the Hittites, 
as that nation had at this period grown in extent 
and in military strength and held large landed prop- 
erty near the Euphrates. He is recorded as king 
of Zobah, a region not exactly identified, but very 
probably a district north of Damascus, between the 
Euphrates and the Mediterranean, but lying east 
of Hamath (the modern Hama) which is no miles 
north of Damascus. In one of the Assyrian inscrip- 
tions Zobah is spoken of as between the Euphrates 
and Hamath, which latter place belonged to another 
king (2 Sam. 8 : 9). Beside these lands, he conquered 
Edom and placed garrisons there. 

5. David reig'ned from B. C. 1056 to B. C. 1015, 
or about forty years according to the commonly re- 
ceived chronology, and was over 70 years of age at 
his death, just before which he appointed Solomon, 
his son, at about the age of 20, to vSucceed him. 

The reign of Solomon was unlike the two pre- 
vious in that it was one of entire rest from war 
until at the extreme close. A large part of Solomon's 
reign was devoted to building the Temple and several 
palaces and cities, beside the construction of a navy 
upon the Red Sea and the erection of various treas- 
ure cities for his chariots and for his horsemen. 

6. This ag'e in Israel was characterized as one 
of great wealth and splendor, such as had not been 
known before. It was also distinguished for the 
wisdom of Solomon. 

His policy of peace was greatly strengthened by 



138 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

leagues and alliances with the kings about him, 
chiefly through marriages, after the custom of Ori- 
ental kings at that day. 

The Pharaoh whose daughter he married, and 
for whom he built a palace in Jerusalem, came up 
and burned a city called Gezer and slew the Canaan- 
ites who dwelt there, giving the city to his daughter, 
I Kings 9: 16. 

GEZER. 

7. Gezer has recently been discovered, with a 
Hebrew and Greek inscription on the surface of 
a large rock which identifies the town by name. 
The location of the place is not quite 20 miles 
west by north of Jerusalem, and its position upon 
a high ridge, which is nearly a mile long, makes it 
probable that it was a formidable town. It was, 
before its capture by Pharaoh, a standing menace 
to the authority of Solomon, as it seems at that time 
to have been independent. It is probable that its 
destruction was instigated by Solomon, who thereby 
exhibited the interest Pharaoh had in him and, at 
the same time, avoided the unwelcome task of ex- 
posing his own people to the casualties of warfare. 

8. The prayer of Solomon at the beginning 
of his reign was for wisdom and judgment in the 
execution of his kingly authority and in his govern- 
ment of the people. Of this wisdom he possessed 
an unparalleled share. But, while wise in the con- 
trol of others, he lost power over himself and was 



THE REIGNS OF DAVID AND OF SOLOMON. 1 39 

led into grievous idolatry through his associations. 
This open worship of the deities of the nations 
with whom he had entered into league through his 
marriages will always remain as a warning against 
the insidious power of evil associations, even in the 
case of the wisest. 



I40 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM. 

1. Solomon after a reign of 40 years^ was 

succeeded by his son Rehoboam, who, through the 
adoption of evil counsel, brought on a great rebel- 
lion and division which resulted in the formation 
of the two kingdoms — one of Judali, with its chief 
city at Jerusalem, and the other of Israel, with its 
capital at Shechem. Jeroboam soon removed to 
Tirzah, where the capital, or royal residence, re- 
mained for many years until Samaria became the 
capital, and continued to be so until the captivity, 
I Kings 16:23. 

TIRZAH. 

This city has been identified with a village now 
inhabited and which is called Teiasir, eleven miles 
north by east of Shechem and twelve miles east- 
north-east of Samaria. It is 995 feet above the Med- 
iterranean on the main road to Beth-shean. But for- 
merly Tirzah was, by Dr. Robinson, supposed to be 
found in a village called Telluzah, six miles due east 
of Samaria, built upon a hill 1,940 feet above the Med- 
iterranean and commanding a magnificent view east- 
ward. This place, in its position, well deserves the 

* I Kings II .-42. 



THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM. I4I 

name ''Tirzah," which means ''beauty/* It is prob- 
ably referred to in the Song of Solomon, 6:4. It was 
thirty-four miles a little east of due north from 
Jerusalem. But neither of these places can with 
certainty be called the Tirzah of this history. 

Samaria was private property at this time, having 
no settlement upon it until nearly fifty years after 
the division of the kingdom, when it was bought by 
Omri, king of Israel, from Shemer, and, after him, 
named Samaria. 

3. There Is a great elironological difficulty 
in adjusting the reigns of the kings of Judah and of 
Israel. 

It arises, in some degree, from the fact that the 
number of months is omitted in the statements of 
the years during which the reigns continued, for 
the whole number of years only is given. Moreover 
the statements are not always clear in relation to 
the epoch from which the number given is to be 
counted. But more recently collateral history, both 
Egyptian and Assyrian, has supplied certain data 
whereby considerable aid has been furnished in the 
settlement of some of the difficulties. 

Under the supposition that the commonly accept- 
ed chronology is correct and that the division of the 
kingdom, at the death of Solomon, took place B. C. 
975, the kingdom of Israel lasted 253 years and the 
kingdom of Judah 387 years, that is from B. C. 975 
to B. C. 722 for Israel and from B. C. 975 to B. C. 
588 for Judah. 



142 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

3. The captivity of Israel took place B. C. 
722, at the taking of Samaria by Sargon, the general 
of Shalmaneser. In the book of Kings we have the 
account of the attack of Shalmaneser upon Samaria, 
2 Kings 17:6; 18:10. In the last passage, the 
phrase ^' they took it '' appears to refer to the fact 
that both Shalmaneser and Sargon laid siege to Sa- 
maria, for although the former began the siege, he 
died suddenly before the city was taken, and Sargon, 
who had seized upon the throne of Assyria, imme- 
diately returned and completed the siege. 

Sargon's own account of the siege and of the 
captivity remarkably agrees with the statement in 
the book of Kings. These facts are derived from 
the Assyrian tablets. 

4. In regard to this king of Assyria, Sargon 
by name, the verse in Isaiah 20 : i was for twenty- 
five centuries the only known evidence of his ex- 
istence. It was not until recently, when the mound 
which covered his palace was excavated, that the 
name came to view. It was then discovered that he 
was one of the greatest kings of Assyria, and his 
history was recorded upon the large alabaster slabs 
which lined a part of his palace. 

Judah was carried into captivity B. C. 588. The 
whole number of rulers, from Rehoboam the first 
king to Zedekiah the last, inclusive of both, was 20, 
of which number there was one queen, Athaliah, 
who reigned six years. 

5. The line of descent of the Messiah 



THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM. 143 

passed through Judah and through all its kings 
except the last (Zedekiah), and the third and fourth 
from the last, namely, Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim. 
The kings of Israel were none of them in this line. 
It was for this reason that the tribe of Judah was 
the most important and prominent of all the tribes. 

6. The captivity of Judali took place under 
Nebuchadnezzar, called also Nebuchadrezzar, Ezek. 
29:19. This king succeeded to the throne of 
Babylon B. C. 604. His father was the first king 
of Babylon after the fall of Nineveh and death of 
its king Assur-bani-pal, the Sardanapalus of the 
Greek historians. 

7. Immediately after the fall of Nineveh, 
B. C. 626, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, Nabopo- 
lassar, founded the independent monarchy of Baby- 
lon, B. C. 625, and at the death of Nabopolassar, 
B. C. 604, Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne. He 
was a general of great energy and enterprise and 
became so well known, even to the Greeks, that 
according to Josephus,^ he was compared with Her- 
cules for his valor and deeds.f The prophet Jere- 
miah compares him with an eagle swooping down 
on his prey,:}: and Ezekiel represents him as a 
great eagle with great wings.§ He was intrusted 
by his father with the entire management of the 
attack upon Nechoh, who had come up from Egypt 
in battle against the city Carchemish on the Eu- 

* "Antiquities," IX., 11 :i. f Strabo, XV., 1:6. Geikie, Vol. V., p. 339. 
t Jer. 48:40; 49:22. § Ezek. ly:;^. 



144 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

phrates, B. C. 606. This city was over five hun- 
dred miles northwest from Babylon on the west 
bank of the river. 

8. With a fine army he attacked Nechoh, and 
defeated him with so dreadful a slaughter that the 
Egyptian king retreated rapidly to the Nile. Neb- 
uchadnezzar followed him through Palestine to Pe- 
lusium, a city on the sea-coast frontiers of Egypt, 
about seventy miles east of the Nile. At this place 
he heard of the death of his father, at Babylon, 
and committing the army and his prisoners into the 
hands of his trusty generals, he left and, with a 
small escort, crossed the desert and arrived at Baby- 
lon, 700 miles distant to the east. Here he found 
that the chief of the priestly caste of the Chaldaeans 
had held the government for him since the death 
of his father.^ He then peaceably succeeded his 
father. 

9. But the kingdom of Judah had not yet 
submitted to Nebuchadnezzar. He, therefore, after 
settling the new order of rule at Babylon, returned 
to Syria, B. C. 602, and attacked Jehoiakim, king 
of Judah, and placed him under tribute. Three 
years had not passed before this Hebrew king, count- 
ing on help from the king of Egypt, rebelled against 
the king of Babylon, and dying soon after, left the 
odium of the rebellion, together with the regal suc- 
cession, to his son Jehoiachin. 

•^ Lenormant, "Ancient History of the East," 475, in remarkable cor- 
roboration of 2 Kings 24:7. 



THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM. 145 

10. This king of Judali had reigned only three 
months when Nebuchadnezzar sent an army into 
Judah and soon after arrived in person ; and the king 
of Judah was forced to submit to the king of Babylon, 
and, with 10,000 of his best citizens, he was taken 
prisoner and carried to Babylon. The uncle of the 
king of Judah, whose name was changed to Zedekiah, 
that is, " the righteousness of Jehovah,** was placed 
upon the throne by Nebuchadnezzar. His previous 
name was Mattaniah, that is, *'gift of Jehovah,'* and 
Nebuchadnezzar, in giving him this new name, 
evidently intended it as a suggestion to the king 
that he was expected to sustain the truthful charac- 
ter of that Jehovah whom he professed to serve; 
for the king of Babylon had made Zedekiah promise 
by oath and covenant, swearing by his God, to be 
faithful to him, 2 Chron. 36: 13 ; Ezek. 17: 13, B. C. 

599- 

In the same manner Pharaoh-nechoh changed the 
name of Eliakim to Jehoiakim, when he advanced 
him to the throne eleven years before, B. C. 610. 
2 Kings 23 : 34. He simply changed the ordinary 
name, El, god, to that most holy name of the 
Israelites* divinity, namely Jehovah. 

11. After eleven years of reign Zedekiah re- 
belled, and then the final siege of Jerusalem took 
place, and the Jews were forced by starvation to 
yield to the king. During the delay required by the 
siege, Nebuchadnezzar remained at a place called 
Riblah (now Ribla) 200 miles north of Jerusalem 

Biblical History and Geo.:?raphy. '7 



146 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

and 70 miles northeast of Beirut, pleasantly located 
in the valley between the Lebanon ranges and on 
the east side of the river Orontes. This place was 
made sadly prominent eighteen years before by the 
imprisonment of Jehoahaz, the successor of Josiah, 
king of Judah. He was taken captive and removed 
from Jerusalem and left at this place by Pharaoh- 
nechoh when he was on his way to his terrible defeat 
by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish, B. C. 606. But 
on his retreat he carried Jehoahaz to Egypt, where 
he died, 2 Kings 23 : 33, 34. 

13. When the generals of Nebuchadnezzar 
had taken Jerusalem, they brought Zedekiah and the 
royal family to Riblah, where it appears that the 
king of Babylon upbraided Zedekiah for his viola- 
tion of his oath, and then slew his sons before his 
eyes. This was his last and dreadful vision, for im- 
mediately after, according to the custom of these 
kings depicted upon the monuments, ''he put out the 
eyes of Zedekiah and bound him with fetters of 
brass and carried him to Babylon,'' 2 Kings 25:7. 

13. The king of Babylon now left the com- 
pletion of the destruction of Jerusalem and the de- 
portation of captives to one of his chief army officers, 
called 'Hhe captain of the guard/' This officer sent 
off all the treasure of the Temple and of the various 
palaces, and then having burned the Temple and all 
the chief houses, he broke down the walls and so 
completely destroyed the city that the ruler, who 
was left to take charge of the few poor remaining. 



THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM. I47 

resided at Mizpah,^ a village, not certainly but very 
probably, identified with a place on a high hill five 
miles west by north from Jerusalem. 

14. Judali was now finally carried away cap- 
tive, and the seventy years of captivity foretold by the 
prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 24 : 1 1 ; 29 : 10) are to be reck- 
oned from the first captivity, B. C. 606, when Daniel 
and others were carried to Babylon in the third year 
of Jehoiakim, 2 Kings. 24: i, 2. These seventy years 
terminated when Cyrus, in the first year of his reign 
at Babylon, B. C. 536, made his proclamation per- 
mitting the Jews to return to Palestine and rebuild 
the temple, Ezra i : 11. 

15. About 50,000 accepted the invitation, but 
a large number preferred to remain, as we shall more 
fully explain hereafter. 

* Also spelled Mizpeh, the meaning being watch-toiver. 



148 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

CHAPTER IV. 

ANALYSIS OF THE REIGNS OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL. 

1. Of the twenty sovereigns of Jiidah, 

Manasseh reigned the longest, namely fifty -five 
years. He was the fourteenth king and began to 
reign at twelve years of age, B. C. 698. 

The shortest reigns in Judah were those of 
Jehoiachin and Jehoahaz, who reigned only about 
three months each, near the close of the kingdom, 
B. C. 600 and B. C. 610. Both of these kings were 
deposed by foreign kings. 

2. Of the nineteen sovereigns of Israel, 
the one who continued longest upon the throne was 
Jeroboam, the second of that name. His reign con- 
tinued forty-one years, from B. C. 825 to B. C. 784. 
He was the thirteenth king. 

The shortest reign was that of Zimri, who com- 
mitted suicide by burning himself in his palace at 
Tirzah, with all its riches, B. C. 930, when he found 
he was about to be taken. He usurped the throne 
and held it only seven days. He was the fifth king. 

MORAL CHARACTER OF THE KINGS. 

3. Of the twenty sovereig^ns of Judah, 

twelve were continually idolatrous. They seemed 
to be entirely unmindful of the previous history 



THE REIGNS OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL. I49 

of the nation and of the claims of Jehovah upon 
their reverence or gratitude. The Temple service 
seems to have been continued by the priests at 
Jerusalem, but, from the warnings of the prophets, 
it appears that even the priests proved faithless and 
frequently allowed themselves to be led in accord- 
ance with the passions and violence of the kings, 
so that irreverence and sacrilege were common. 

The treasures of the Temple, those vessels, orna- 
ments, and trophies which were sacred to its use, or 
placed there in commemoration of victories and in 
honor of the Lord, were repeatedly seized by the 
kings and given to their enemies, or used for private 
purposes, and, in some instances, removed to give 
place for idolatrous practices. Parts of the Temple 
considered sacred to the name of Jehovah were 
desecrated by altars built for the worship of the 
hosts of heaven, and graven images were erected 
upon the Temple grounds, in defiance of the law. 

4. The kings themselves frequently gave pub- 
lic examples of their contempt for Jehovah by the 
service and worship of the gods of surrounding 
nations, by erecting temples and altars and by 
planting groves upon high places and setting up 
images of Baal and Ashtoreth throughout the land 
and in prominent towns, so that the people were 
constantly drawn into idolatry and their children 
made to dwell in the presence and under the influ- 
ence of idolatrous emblems, as seen throughout the 
kingdom. 



150 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

5. The above mentioned facts are specially 
applicable to twelve kings out of the twenty of 
Judah, but the character of the reigns of Israel was 
even worse. Of its nineteen kings, not one was 
free from idolatry. At the very beginning of their 
history the first king, Jeroboam, who had spent 
about five years in Egypt at the court of Shishak, 
erected a golden calf at Bethel and one at Dan in 
the north, and invited the people to worship at these 
shrines in preference to the '' house of the Lord,*' 
the Temple, at Jerusalem. 

6. This worsliip of tlie g^olclen calf was a 
repetition of the same worship which was performed 
500 years before at Mt. Sinai, soon after the Israel- 
ites came out of Egypt, and Jeroboam the king in 
instituting it repeated the words which were uttered 
at Mt. Sinai,"^ namely, *' These be thy gods, O Israel, 
which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt/* 
Exod. 32:4. 

7. Tlie selection of the calf was suggested by 
the prominence which that animal,f as the symbol 
of divine power, attained in Egypt. The costly 
adornment and preservation of the sacred living 
bull, or Apis, and the magnificent funeral ceremo- 
nies and entombment of the dead Apis are frequent- 
ly alluded to on the monuments of Egypt. Long 
before the departure of the Israelites from Egypt 
the veneration of the sacred bull had been exhibited 

* I Kings 12:28. 

t Under the title of Apis ; Greek, Ser-apis, for Osiris-Apis. 



THE REIGNS OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL. 151 

in services and obsequies, so general throughout 
Lower Egypt, and so imposing, that the effect upon 
the population must have been far more solemn and 
impressive than anything we can conceive of at the 
present day. The costly burial places, called '' Sera- 
peums,'' some of which yet exist, and the granite 
sarcophagi show beyond any question how reverent 
and imposing the worship of the bull must have been. 

8. In the expression used at Mt. Sinai 
and by Jeroboam the word ''gods" has the force 
of the singular number, being that word sometimes 
applied to Jehovah and always used in the plural 
number, called ''the plural of excellence;" so that 
while translated in this phrase "gods," to the He- 
brew it was the same as "god ;" hence there was only 
one calf -image at any place. 

It is both remarkable and memorable that not- 
withstanding the bold and careless manner in which 
Jeroboam's contempt for the worship of Jehovah 
was exhibited, yet in the later history of his life, 
when a bitter sorrow was coming upon him, he acted 
the part of Saul and applied for help to the prophet 
whose counsel he had abused. The results were the 
same and the record is in i Kings 14. 

9. It should be remembered that while the 
kings and many of the people departed from their 
covenanted service of Jehovah, and the land was full 
of idolaters, there were, at all times, those who in 
the privacies of their homes were faithful servants 
of the Most High. 



152 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

This fact was brought out in the time of the 
prophet Elijah ; for when the prophet in his despair 
supposed he was the only surviving worshipper of 
God, the Lord revealed to him the truth that at that 
very moment there were 7,000 in Israel who had 
never bowed the knee to Baal, but were faithful to 
Jehovah, i Kings 19: 18. Even in the household of 
the idolatrous Ahab there was one who held so 
persistently to the ancient faith in Jehovah, that, 
despite the cunning, power, and vengeance of Jez- 
ebel, he succeeded in hiding and feeding one hun- 
dred of the prophets of the Lord, probably in several 
caves. This man, Obadiah by name, was governor 
of Ahab's hoUwSe, i Kings 18 13, and not the prophet, 
who lived about 587 B. C. 

10. Freqviently, during the darkest times 
of the two kingdoms, there suddenly appeared an 
antecedently unknown messenger of God, who bore 
with him the evidence that he was a member of a 
reserved force of faithful ones whose existence had 
never been published in the annals of the kingdom ; 
and these unknown servants existed in both king- 
doms alike, and were of both sexes, as we find in the 
cases of Huldah, whose knov/ledge of the law made 
her worthy of consultation by the king, and of Han- 
nah before her, and of that nameless woman dwell- 
ing in the walled city Abel, who, although ''peace- 
able and faithful in Israel," had power enough sim- 
ply by her wise counsel to turn back the fierce army 
of Joab, 2 Sam. 20 : 19. 



THE REIGNS OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL. 1 53 

ABEL. 

This place was also called Abel-beth-maachah. 
It was upon the level land twelve miles north by 
west of the waters of Merom, lake Huleh, and is now 
called Abl. Abel means ''meadow." The village 
is over 1,000 feet above the lake Huleh (1,074 feet), 
and is a Christian village. 

11. It Is, therefore, reasonable to suppose 
that although at court and by the kings the law of 
the Lord was little known and read, it might yet 
have been thoroughly studied and observed by 
many in private. 



7* 



154 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE INSTITUTION OF THE PROPHETICAL OFFICE. 

1. But a most remarkable feature of the 

times of the kings, both of Judah and Israel, ap- 
peared in that religious body called the Prophets. 

The name '' prophet '* was originally given by 
God to Abraham, Gen. 20 : 7, and seemed to imply 
a familiarity with God, or that the one to whom it 
was applied had divine authority to speak for God. 
The prophets, therefore, were not confined in their 
utterances to a mere foretelling of events, but, in 
addition, were made the messengers of God and 
uttered commands as well as advice by his appoint- 
ment and in his stead. 

3. They received divine messages in several 
ways: (i) by impulses, commanding and influen- 
cing their thoughts while awake, as in the case of 
Elisha, 2 Kings 3:15; (2) by audible sounds, as in 
the case of Samuel when a child, i Sam. 3: 10, and 
when older and a prophet, as recorded in i Sam. 
9:15 and in other passages; (3) and by visions, or 
dreams, as in the cases of Isaiah, Isa. 1:1, Micaiah, 
I Kings 22 : 17, and Daniel, Dan. 10: i, 7. 

3. There was a class who were officially known 
as prophets, whose lives were chiefly devoted to this 
office, and these were distinguished by a term which 



THE PROPHETICAL OFFICE. 1 55 

has come down to the present time and is in use 
among the Arabs in the regions of Palestine and 
Syria. This is the term'^Neby" used by the na- 
tives as a title of a sacred person and associated with 
tombs throughout these lands, and it is the same 
word used in the times of Abraham, Gen. 20 : 7. 

4. Tliere was, hoivever, another class of 
prophets who seem to have been used for special 
occasions and who were commissioned for one pro- 
phetic act, after which they do not appear again in 
history, 2 Chron. 9:29; i Kings 16:1-4; 2 Chron. 
19 :2 ; 15 : 1-8, and elsewhere. These, however, may 
in some instances have been chosen from one of 
those collections, or schools, of the prophets which 
existed from the time of Samuel to a period several 
centuries later, i Sam. 19:18, 19. '' Naioth " in this 
passage alludes to the ''habitations*' in Ramah, 
which appear to have been ''colleges" of the proph- 
ets. There were such colleges or schools at Bethel 
and Jericho, 2 Kings 2 : 3, 5. In these schools the law 
was studied, and perhaps psalmody, as we find that 
in some passages references are made to the instru- 
mental performances of the prophets, i Sam. 10:5. 

5. Of all the prophets the utterances of only 
sixteen have come down to us in distinct books. Of 
these it is customary to speak of four as the greater, 
or major, prophets, and of twelve as the minor 
prophets, but these terms have reference only to 
the extent of their writings. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Eze- 
kiel, and Daniel are included in the term major, and 



156 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

their prophecies, as written, are composed in the 
following order, only as to the number of verses 
in each prophecy as that prophecy appears in the 
English authorized version: Jeremiah (including 
Lamentations, which has 154 verses) 1,518 verses, 
Isaiah 1,292, Ezekiel 1,273, and Daniel 357. 

6. Of the minor prophets, the order, in point 
of number of verses in each book, is as follows: 
Zechariah 211, Hosea 197, Amos 146, Micah 105, 
Joel 73, Habakkuk 56, Malachi 55, Zephaniah 53, 
Jonah 48, Nahum 47, Haggai 38, Obadiah 21. 

The prophecy of Jeremiah, including Lamen- 
tations, ranks, in order of number of verses, next 
after Genesis, which contains 1,533 verses. 

This analysis of the books of the major prophets 
shows not only their comparative importance, as to 
size, among the sixteen prophetical books, but also 
among all the thirty-nine books of the Old Testa- 
ment ; for Genesis, in point of number of verses, is 
second only to the book of Psalms, and Jeremiah^s 
writings are the third in this order. 

7. In point of time, there seems to have been 
an entirely uninterrupted line of such prophets as 
we have described from the age of Samuel to the 
return from the captivity, an era of nearly 750 years 
(from B. C. 1141 to B. C. 397). 

Some of even the greatest of the prophets, as 
Elijah and Elisha, never committed their prophecies 
to writing. In a very large degree, however, their 
words and acts are recorded in various histories, as 



THE PROPHETICAL OFFICE. 1 57 

the historian had need to make reference to them in 
explaining certain events he was narrating in the 
history of the kingdoms of Jtidah and of Israel. 

Of those prophets whose prophecies are given in 
distinct books, Jonah was the first mentioned in 
point of time, and Malachi was the last, probably 
B. C. 397. 

After the death of Malachi the prophetic insti- 
tution, as an order, seems to have closed, and it was 
so understood by some of the ancient Jewish writers, 
as appears in the apocryphal books."^ 

* Ecclus. ."^6:15 and Maccabees 9:27; 14:41. 



158 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY, 



PERIOD VI. 

THE CAPTIYITY OF JUDAH TO THE CLOSE OF 
THE CAHOHICAIi PERIOD. 

B. c. 588-397(?)- 



CHAPTER I. 

THE VARIOUS CAPTIVITIES. 

1. By the words ''the captivity" is generally 
meant the final captivity of Judah, which was the 
last of a series of captivities both of Israel and of 
Judah. As a knowledge of these captivities is not 
only important in the study of Jewish history, but 
has a bearing upon the authenticity of the Scripture, 
they should all be carefully distinguished. We there- 
fore give a full list as follows. 

THE VARIOUS CAPTIVITIES. 

2. The first captivity, B. C. about 733, was that 
of the tribes east of the Jordan, by a king of Assyria 
bearing two names in Scripture, which were former- 
ly supposed to be the names of two distinct kings. 



THE VARIOUS CArTIVITIES. 1 59 

But a recently discovered list of Babylonian kings 
shows that the two names are those of the same 
king, and therefore the reading of the verse, i Chron. 
5 : 26, is correct in which the two names of this king, 
namely, Pul and Tilgath - pilneser, are spoken of as 
in the singular number. 

Pul seized the throne B. C. 745, and died 727."^ 
The dates in our marginal references (2 Kin. 15 : 19) 
are too early. This king carried away '' the Reuben- 
ites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh , 
and brought them unto Halah and Habor and Hara 
and to the river Gozan/' i Chron. 5:26; see also 
2 Kings 1 5 : 29. 

HALAH, HABOR, HARA, THE RIVER GOZAN. 

3. Halah is probably identified with a mound 
now called Gla, on the river Khabour, which is a 
tributary to the Euphrates. It is about 430 miles 
northeast of Jerusalem and 330 northeast of Babylon. 

Habor was probably on the river Khabour, but 
its site has not been identified. 

Hara is about 100 miles northwest of Gla and is 
supposed to be the same as Haran, to which Terah 
and Abraham migrated from Ur of the Chaldees. It 
is situated upon the river Belik, which runs southward 
about seventy miles and then joins the Euphrates. 

The river Gozan was probably the same as the 
Khabour, as the province of Gozan, through which 

* T. G. Pinches, inl " Trans. Soc. of Biblical Archaeology," May, 
1884. Same as Tiglath -pileser, 2 Kings 15:29. 



l6o BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

it ran, seems to be identified with the Gaiizanitis of 
Ptolemy. Its mouth is about lOO miles east of that 
of the river Belik, which also empties into the Eu- 
phrates. After the Khabour no other river is tribu- 
tary to the Euphrates for 500 miles of its course. 
The mouth of the Khabour is 300 miles northwest' 
of Babylon. 

4. The second captivity, B. C. 721. Twenty 
years afterward, at the siege of Samaria, the As- 
syrian king Sargon carried off a larger and more 
important number. This king gives an account of 
this siege, in remarkable corroboration of the Scrip- 
ture history, and states that he ''carried off 27,280 of 
its citizens." Nevertheless a large number remained 
in the region around and many fled who returned 
afterward, 2 Kings 17:6. 

5. ^^The cities of the Medes" here spoken of 
had been only recently conquered by Tiglath - pileser. 
In an inscription, towards the end of his reign, he 
mentions Parthia (parts of Media), Nisaea, and other 
places that paid him tribute. It was in 736 B. C. 
that he made a great expedition in the east, farther 
than any of his predecessors, reaching the frontiers 
of India. He was succeeded by Shalmaneser, B. C. 
727, who died and was succeeded by Sargon, B. C. 
721, the year of the capture of Samaria.^ The war 
of the first captivity (page 158) was carried on 
between B. C. 733-731 by Tiglath - pileser, and it 
was then that the first recorded instance occurred 

* Lenormant and Chev., '' Ancient History of the East," p. 392. 



THE VARIOUS CAPTIVITIES. l6l 

of the practice of transplanting the whole people of 
a conquered country to places far distant from their 
native land and replacing them by other captives."^ 
Such was afterward the act of Esar-haddon in regard 
to Samaria, as stated in Ezra 4:2. This king reigned 
B. C. 68i-668.t 

The captivity B. C. 721 was the last captivity in 
any form of Israel, which is known as ^' the northern 
kingdom,'* in contradistinction from Judah, ''the 
southern kingdom/' It comprised ''the ten tribes." 

6. The third captivity, B. C. 606. Of the cap- 
tivities of Judah, the first happened when Daniel 
and others were carried off to Babylon, B. C. 606, 
2 Kings 24 : 2 ; 2 Chron. 36 : 6 ; Dan. i : 3, when but a 
few were sent to Babylon. 

7. The fourth captivity, B. C. 599-598. The 
second deportation to Babylon from Judah was in 
B. C. 599-598, when 10,000 captives were taken from 
Jerusalem, 2 Kings 24: 12, and from the surrounding 
country 3,023, Jer. 52:28. The king Jehoiachin was 
also taken captive. 

8. The fifth and final captivity, B. C. 588. In 
the third great captivity of Judah Nebuchadnezzar 
destroyed Jerusalem by burning the Temple and 
pulling down the walls and the houses. 

Perhaps in all 100,000 were carried off at various 
times. While this number was comparatively small, 
it represented the very strength of the kingdom of 
Judah, with which tribe the promise of the Messiah 

* Lenormant, 392. f Idem, 604. 

Biblical History and Geography. J J 



l62 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

alone rested, and it was of this tribe that the ma- 
jority of those who returned to Palestine were com- 
posed. 

The captives of Judah remained in or around 
Babylon during the entire term of their captivity. 

9. The captivity of Manasseh. In this con- 
nection there is another captivity merely referred to 
in one verse in 2 Chron. 33:11. It is the captivity of 
Manasseh by the king of Assyria. In this verse it 
is said that this king of Judah was carried captive to 
Babylon, and for a time it was thought by some 
critics that this was an incorrect statement, since the 
king of Assyria was at Nineveh. But among the 
inscriptions at present in the British Museum were 
found those of the history of Esar-haddon, who 
reigned from B. C. 681 to B. C. 668. In this history 
it is stated that he went to Syria and conquered and 
destroyed Sidon and held court at Damascus, sum- 
moning twenty-two kings to meet him there; and 
second among the names is that of ''the king of 
Judah." This was in the year B. C. 6^2!^ It is re- 
corded that he rebuilt Babylon, and we find that 
both he and his son held their courts and judged 
vassal princes like Manasseh at Babylon.f Esar- 
haddon gathered men from Babylon and other 

* Lenormant etc., *' Ancient History of the East," p. 406. Geikie's 
date would make it too late, see authorities in Geikie, V., p. 91., and for 
the translation of cylinders, *' History of Esar-haddon," Budge, 1881, 
Boston, Osgood & Co., p. 103. 

t See Rawlinson's ''Five Great Monarchies," n.,p. 477, English 
Edition ; also Maclear's " Old Testament History," p. 445. 



THE VARIOUS CAPTIVITIES. 163 

places and planted them in Samaria, and hence 
we have the account given us in Ezra 4:2, 9, 10. 

10. Although the " seventy years '' of captivity- 
pronounced against Judah by the prophet Jeremiah 
(25 : 12 ; 29: 10) are supposed to begin B. C. 606, yet 
the destruction of Jerusalem and the last deportation 
of Judah, B. C. 588, closed up the list of captivities 
both of Judah and of Israel. Both communities now 
existed, but, with small exception, only as captives 
in Assyria or as exiles in various other lands. 



164 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE COMPARATIVE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT. 

1. As a people^ the Jews of the northern king- 
dom never were so warmly attached to the Temple 
worship as those of the southern, and hence all the 
Psalms which alluded to Jerusalem^ and the Temple 
are supposed to have been written by the exiles of 
Judah, that is of the southern kingdom, who went 
into captivity B. C. 588 under Nebuchadnezzar, and 
were settled in Babylon or its vicinity. For the 
entire seventy years the people of Judah and those 
of Israel were separated by several hundred miles of 
country. 

2. During tlie many years of captivity, Israel, 
that is the ten tribes, probably mingled with other 
nations in their midst and became very largely 
estranged from the father-land. There were fewer 
of the ties of religious faith with them than with 
Judah. Even the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, 
when they returned from the captivity and entered 
into their city Jerusalem and into the cities and 
lands surrounding, brought wives from the heathen 
about them,f the very priests and Levites being also 

* Such as Psalms 79, 102, 126, 137, and others. 

t Their tendencies were idolatrous from the beginning, i Kings 
14:15. For the comparative morality see p. 150. 



THE COMPARATIVE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT. 165 

guilty, Ezra 9:1, although the Mosaic law prohibited 
such marriages. 

3. Such heathen intermarriages among the 
members of the tribes would, after 185 years, be 
less objected to than among the tribes of Judah 
and Benjamin, and would naturally be followed by 
not only indifference to any return, but also by for- 
getfulness of the land and of the history of their 
origin, and it is not surprising that when the tribes 
of Judah and Benjamin accepted the permission 
granted by Cyrus, the king of Babylon, to return to 
Palestine, the ten tribes, as a whole, remained in 
Assyria and never returned, but probably became 
lost by being absorbed into the nations with whom 
they associated. 

CONDITION DURING THE CAPTIVITY. 

4. During the captivity the Jews in Assyria 
and Babylonia were allowed great privileges. They 
were considered more in the light of colonists than 
of slaves, and from the histories, both sacred and 
secular, we learn that, as stated in the books of 
Nehemiah, Esther, and Daniel, they were occasion- 
ally employed in high positions in the state and at 
court. Nehemiah, though born at Babylon during 
the captivity, was a Jew of the tribe of Judah, but 
was cup-bearer to the Persian king, Artaxerxes 
Longimanus, at Susa. Ezra also enjoyed great con- 
sideration at the Persian court during the reigns of 
several of the kings of Persia. And from the book 



l66 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

of Esther it is evident that the Jews prospered 
greatly during the reign of Xerxes. 

5. The proi^hets, during the captivity of Judah, 
were earnest in their endeavors to preserve the in- 
tegrity and reverence of the people, and it was 
largely due to them that many of the observances 
of the Mosaic law, and a loving remembrance of the 
Temple and of Jerusalem, prevailed so far as it did 
in spite of the idolatries of the people by whom they 
were surrounded. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, 
with Obadiah, were the prophets of the captivities. 

PROPHETS DURING THE CAPTIVITY. 

6. Before the captivity Jeremiah^ had fore- 
told the captivity of Judah, for seventy years, in 
Babylon, Jer. 25 :8-i2, and also the fall of Babylon 
(verses 13-38). His faithfulness endangered his life, 
and when Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem he found 
Jeremiah in prison and released him, offering him 
a residence in Babylon. The prophet, however, 
chose to remain with the remnant of Judah who 
were not carried away, and when this remnant fled 
to Egypt, for fear of Nebuchadnezzar, they took 
Jeremiah with them. See the account in Jer. 43 : 6. 

7. A recent remarkable discovery has been 
made, in Egypt, of the palace of Pharaoh-hophra, 
the Egyptian king who reigned at the time Jeremiah 
was carried to Egypt, about B. C. 585. The prophet 

* It is not probable that he went to Babylon, but his prophecies 
were taken there, Dan. 9:?; Jer, 29, 



THE COMPARATIVE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT. 167 

protested against the departure to Egypt of the 
remnant of which we have spoken, and forewarned 
them that Nebuchadnezzar would go to Egypt and 
would overcome Pharaoh-hophra and would pitch 
his tent in the court of this palace. Several clay 
cylinders have been picked up in the vicinity bear- 
ing the name of Nebuchadnezzar, and proving that 
he had been here, and the brick pavement, or court, 
before the palace, which seems to be alluded to in 
Jer. 43 : 9, has been uncovered. It was here that the 
prophet hid the stones at the place he foretold as 
that where Nebuchadnezzar should set his pavilion. 
The palace was at Tahpanhes (pronounced tah'-pan- 
heez), Jer. 43^8-13. 

TAHPANHES. 

8, Taliapenes, also written Tahpanhes, Jer. 
43 • 7» 9y or Tehaph'nehes, Ezek. 30 : 18, was an Egyp- 
tian city on the east of the Delta, seventy-eight miles 
east-northeast from the present Cairo, and upon the 
most eastern branch of the Nile. In 1886 Mr. Petrie 
discovered, at this place, the palace above alluded 
to, at which the Pharaoh (Hophra) then reigning 
probably received king Zedekiah's daughters, to 
which there seems a reference in the traditional 
name '' Castle of the Jew's daughter.*' The place 
is now called Tell Defenneh, but there exist only 
ruins covered by a mound. 

DANIEL. 

9. Daniel went into captivity six or seven 



l68 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

years before the captivity of Ezekiel, when Nebu- 
chadnezzar first laid siege to Jerusalem, B. C. 606. 
At this time the king of Babylon took captive Daniel 
and his companions, who were young and of noble 
families, and had them sent to his palace to be 
educated for the king's service. The Assyrian rec- 
ords show that it was a custom among the kings to 
select young men of talent and educate them at 
royal expense, that they might be special officers 
at court. Daniel was so chosen, with three others, 
and they were ''taught the learning and the tongue 
of the Chaldseans,'* Dan. 1 14. Their great skill and 
wisdom roused a jealousy among the princes of the 
court against the companions of Daniel, and while 
Daniel was absent on some commission, or other 
duty, his companions were condemned to be burned 
alive, but were delivered by divine interference, 
Dan. 3. 

EZEKIEL. 

10. The prophet Ezekiel went into captivity 
with Jehoiachin king of Judah, eleven years before 
the final captivity, and was placed with a Jewish 
company at the river Chebar, which may be the 
same as ''The royal Canal," just north of Babylon, 
and which was dug by Nebuchadnezzar to unite the 
waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris. This 
prophet was skilled in the law and a faithful priest 
and teacher, and his influence was great among the 
captives. 



THE COMPARATIVE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT. 169 

OBADIAH. 

11. Obadiah was the fourth prophet, whose 
prophecies seem to have been delivered about B. C. 
587, or during the captivity of Judah and soon after 
the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. 
He appears as specially commissioned to foretell the 
punishment of the Edomites for their pride and 
insulting rejoicing at the destruction of Jerusalem 
and the distress of the Jews. According to Josephus, 
this warning received its fulfilment about five years 
after the prophecy. 

ASSYRIAN KINGS OF THE CAPTIVITY. 

13. Of the kings of Assyria and Babylon 

during the captivities the first mentioned in Scrip- 
ture is Tiglath - pileser, of whom and his successors 
we have already spoken, pages 159, 160. These kings 
were active only in the captivities of Israel. Nebu- 
chadnezzar was connected with the captivities of 
Judah. 

NEBUCHADNEZZAR. 

Nebuchadnezzar began to reign B. C. 604. 
During his reign of forty-three years Babylon rose 
to its highest splendor and remained a magnificent 
city until his death in B. C. 562. His madness, spo- 
ken of by Daniel, is not distinctly stated in Assyrian 
history, but an inscription, now in the East India 
House at London, gives an account of the various 

works of Nebuchadnezzar, and abruptly says that 

8 



I/O BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

his heart was hardened against the Chaldsean astrol- 
ogers. '' He would grant no benefactions for re- 
ligious purposes. He intermitted the worship of 
Merodach, and put an end to the sacrifice of victims. 
He labored under the effects of enchantment '' 

This last sentence seems to accord with the 
statement of Daniel (chapters 1-4). The record re- 
ferred to was found in the ruins on the Tigris. 

13. The son and sviccessor of Nebuchadnez^ 
zar was Evil-merodach, B. C. 561. He released the 
captive king of Judah, Jehoiachin, and treated him 
as a prince and with special favor. His sister's 
husband, Neriglissar, succeeded him B. C. 559. He 
is mentioned in 2 Kings 25 : 27 ; Jer. 52:31. 

14. This Neriglissar, or, as the monuments 
present it, Nergal-Sharezer, held the throne only 
three years, and was followed by his son, a minor, 
who perished in a conspiracy of the nobles after a 
reign of only nine months. One of these nobles, 
Nabonidus by name, ascended the throne and held 
it till the city was captured by Cyrus. It was his 
son, Belshazzar, who, as eldest son, reigned with his 
father when Babylon was taken, his father having 
entrusted him with the care of the city while he, 
with the main part of the army, was engaged with 
Cyrus, eight miles off at Borsippa. 

15. Cyrus did not assume the rule of Bab- 
ylon immediately as its titular king. He was su- 
preme over all Asia from India to the Bosphorus, 
but, for some reason, a Median prince was estab- 



THE COMPARATIVE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT. I /I 

lished for a time as nominal king, although Cyrus 
retained all the power. That prince was Darius, 
the son of Cyaxares, a childless man of sixty-two 
years of age. When, two years after his appoint- 
ment, he died, Cyrus assumed the power and be- 
came king of Babylon."^ 

* The discussion of this matter of Darius of Dan. 5:31 may be 
found in ** Translations of the Society of Biblical Archaeology," VI., pp. 
1-133; also in Geikie, Vol. VI., p. 398. 



172 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CAPTIVITY ENDED. 

1. In the first year of his reign, B. C. 536, 

Cyrus issued a decree of liberty to the Jews to return 
to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple, Ezra i : 2-4. 

2. No more than 42^360^ including children, 
could be persuaded to return. But in addition there 
were over 7,000 male and female servants. Of the 
priestly clans, only four out of twenty-four were 
ready to go out, but these added 4,000. Of the 
Levites, only seventy-four cared to leave Babylon. 
This multitude, of about 50,000, set out as a caravan 
to reach Palestine, many of them having to travel 
the whole distance on foot, as only 8,136 animals, 
for carriage, accompanied them. The journey oc- 
cupied about four months and when they arrived 
they found much of the land preoccupied by the 
surrounding nations. 

But, after much labor and considerable opposi- 
tion, the Temple of Jerusalem was rebuilt and, after 
longer delay, the walls arose from the ruins. B. C. 
516 is the date of the second Temple, and B. C. 445 
of the rebuilt walls. 

THE NUMBER OF THE JEWS AS A RACE. 

3. The number of those who returned to Pal- 
estine was small compared with the number of the 



THE CAPTIVITY ENDED. 1 73 

Jews as a race at this time. During the reign of 
David a census of the nation was taken. Of this cen- 
sus there are two accounts, one in 2 Sam. 24 : 9, the 
other in i Chron. 21:5. The first gives 800,000 as 
the number in Israel, and 500,000 in Judah, of those 
"who drew the sword." In these statements the 
tribes of both Levi and Benjamin were omitted, the 
former because they were not subject to military 
duty, and the latter for the reason stated in the text, 
I Chron. 21:6. 

4. This census made the number of men ca- 
pable of bearing arms 1,300,000. It seems from 
I Chron. 27 : i that there was a standing army of 
24,000, renewed every month from Israel, and drawn 
from an established organization of twelve times 
that number, which Joab, who took the census, may 
not have included in the number of the census of 
Israel, 2 Sam. 24 : 9, but which has been added by 
the writer of i Chron. 21:5. This increases the 
number by about 300,000, so that the total would be 
about 1,600,000 of both Israel and Judah, with the 
exception of the number lost by a pestilence which 
immediately followed upon the census. But the 
tribes of Levi and Benjamin, which were not num- 
bered, as we have shown above, would fully replace 
the number lost by the pestilence. Hence at the 
time of David the able-bodied men of the entire na- 
tion were about 1,600,000, and this number could not 
have been materially lessened at the beginning of the 
captivities. 



174 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

5. An Important fact connected with the cap- 
tivities was that the members of the ablest families, 
the wealthiest and most influential, were chiefly in- 
cluded among the captives, and, in the case of Judah, 
not only the most learned, but the most devoutly at- 
tached to the Mosaic law of all the tribes, went into 
captivity. 

6. What became of a larg-e part of the 
Jewish people just before these times is plain from 
the references to those who had fled during the va- 
rious wars of the captivities, or who might have been 
taken captive or retired to other nations than the 
Assyrian, 2 Kings 25 14, 22, 26; 2 Chron. 28: 17, 18; 
Jer. 29:4; 41 : 10. So that we may reasonably sup- 
pose that large numbers, especially from the ten 
tribes of Israel, either remained in PalCvStine after 
the captivity, or departed to the east of the Jordan 
or to Egypt, and perhaps to other countries. A con- 
siderable number of the people of Judah who were 
left after the beginning of the captivity went down 
as we have said, page 166, into Egypt, taking the 
prophet Jeremiah with them f but all probably per- 
ished there, as foretold by that prophet, Jer. 42 : ig-22. 

CONDITION OF JERUSALEM AT THE RETURN. 

7. Jerusalem >vas in ruins. Its walls were 
broken down, and its palaces and Temple and all 
the chief houses and monuments of every descrip- 
tion were levelled and burned so far as was possible. 

* Some remained in Palestine. 



THE CAPTIVITY ENDED. 1 75 

Judging from the allusions to the destroyed city 
which are occasionally found in Jewish writers, and 
from the accounts of similar destructions by Assyr- 
ian and Babylonish kings, it is probable that the city 
was more utterly ruined and made more uninhabita- 
ble than ever before or since. 

In the time of Amaziah, king of Judah, B. C. 826, 
the wall for about 600 feet was broken down by 
Jehoash, king of Israel, 2 Kings 14: 13, but the des- 
truction by Nebuchadnezzar's >' captain of the guard '* 
was far more terrible, since it extended to the entire 
city, as well as to the walls, and probably to the 
smallest dwellings. 

THE HISTORY AFTER THE RETURN. 

8. The TTorshlp at Jerusalem soon became 
prominently important throughout the land. The 
strict observance of the Law and a deep hatred of 
idolatry seem fully to have occupied the minds of 
the people, and the feast of the Passover was observed 
at Jerusalem with the other feasts, in strict accord- 
ance with the Law. The sacrifices were made and 
burnt-offerings offered before the foundations of the 
Temple were laid, only the altar having been set up 
upon the former site and in the open air. 

9. Very few, if any, of those Jews who had 
been scattered abroad came from the remnants of 
the ten tribes around the distant places of northern 
Assyria and from the other regions ; but a new im- 
migration, under Ezra, came from Babylon bringing 



176 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

in about 6,000 more."^ This last immigration was 
not until fifty-eight years after the second Temple 
had been built under Zerub'babel,f who went out 
with the Jews from Babylon under the edict of 
Cyrus, at the first departure of the captives, B. C. 588. 

10. Mvich of the history of these times 
is derived from the historian Josephus, but some- 
thing may be learned from the writings of the proph- 
ets Haggai and Zechariah. Haggai encouraged Ze- 
rubbabel in the building of the Temple, Ezra 5:1, 2. 
He first appears in the second year of Darius Hys- 
taspes, B. C. 521. About two months:}: after Haggai 
the prophet Zechariah began to prophesy in Jeru- 
salem. Malachi, the last of the prophets, uttered his 
warnings and reproofs, and foretold the coming 
Messiah, about 125 years after Haggai and Zechariah, 
or probably about B. C. 397. 

11. One of the hooks of the Bible contains the 
history of Esther, which reveals to us the extent of 
Jewish settlement and growth in the Persian provin- 
ces at about the era of Xerxes, who came to the 
throne of Persia B. C. 485, fifty years after the re- 
turn of the Jews to Palestine. § 

Cyrus had been succeeded by his son Cambyses, 
whose reign was spent chiefly in attempting to re- 
conquer Egypt, until his death by suicide, B. C. 522. 
He was succeeded by Darius, who reigned till B. C. 

* " Old Testament History," Maclear, p. 476. Ezra 8. 

t According to Ussher. 

J Zech. 1:1. 

g "The Book of Esther/' by Haley, Andover, 1885. 



THE CAPTIVITY ENDED. 1 77 

486, and during that reign the Jews had peace and 
prosperity, both in Palestine and Persia. 

At the death of Darius, Xerxes began his reign 
of twenty-one years. This king, known as Xerxes 
among the Greeks, was called Ahasuerus among 
the Hebrews, and is so presented to us in the book 
of Esther. 

13. The king was spending his time at his 
splendid capital Susa, when he gave a feast of un- 
exampled extravagance. It was at this feast that 
he became enraged at his queen because she refused 
to present herself, at the order of the king, before 
the half-drunken revellers of the occasion. The 
queen was deposed, and Esther was chosen in her 
place. The new queen was an orphan maiden of 
the tribe of Benjamin, and, about B. C. 478, she ap- 
peared before the king and the royal crown was 
placed upon her head. 

Through jealousy a plot was originated by Ha- 
inan to destroy the Jews. This plot was prevented 
by Esther, and the Jews were permitted to defend 
themselves and slay all who should attempt their 
destruction, throughout the '' one hundred and twen- 
ty-seven provinces" of the Empire. 

13. The recent explorations, by the French 
archaeologist M. Marcel Dieulafoy, in the extensive 
mounds of the site of ancient Susa, have shown a 
very surprising accuracy in the description, both of 
the palace and its ornaments, as found in the book 
of Esther. ''The brilliant coloring of the glazed 

Biblical HiBtory'aud Geography. O 



178 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

tiles, the gorgeous decoration of the palace walls, 
the handsome friezes and enormous capitals/'"^ form- 
ing part of the collection brought together at the 
Mus^e du Louvre, together with the plan of the 
palace, its courts and gardens, afford sufficient evi- 
dence that the unknown author of the history of 
Esther must have been well acquainted not only 
with the structure of the palace, but with the cus- 
toms of the people. 

SUSA. 

14. Susa was the Greek name of the place 
called Shushan in Neh. 1:1, and frequently so in the 
book of Esther.f It has been identified with exten- 
sive ruins 175 miles north of the Persian Gulf and 
275 miles east of Babylon. One of the mounds 
shows the remains of a vast palace with one cen- 
tral hall containing thirty-six columns about six- 
ty feet in height. Other halls and columns with 
porches make it certain that this is the palace called 
so frequently ''Shushan the palace" in the history 
of Esther. It was the capital of Elam, the country 
around being called Susiana. It was an ancient city 
and was captured by the Assyrian king Assur-bani- 
pal about B. C. 650. When the father of Nebuchad- 
nezzar, Nabopolassar king of Babylon, and Cyaxares 

* Full description by Dr. M. Jastrow, Jr., " Sunday-school Times," 
Philadelphia, November 17, 1888. 

t For the critical account, see *' The Book of Esther," by Haley, 
Andover, 1885. More recently, '' Harper's Monthly," June, 1887. "Revue 
des Etudes Juives," Avril— Juin, 1888. ** Sunday-school Times." Novem- 
ber 17, 1888. 



THE CAPTIVITY ENDED. 1 79 

king of Media, conquered Nineveh and divided the 
empire between them, Shushan fell to Babylon. The 
wealth of the city may be known from the fact that 
at the Macedonian conquest of this region Alexan- 
der found treasure here of the value of $60,000,000. 
It is situated on the east bank of the Shapur Riv- 
er, which is supposed to have been the Ulai (pro- 
nounced u' - la - i) of the book of Daniel, Dan. 8:1,2,27. 

15. It was ill the palace in Susa that Nehe- 
miah held the office of cup-bearer to the Persian 
king Artaxerxes, B. C. 446, thirty-two years after 
Esther was crowned, B. C. 478. 

16. It is shown by this history that the Jews, 
fifty-eight years after their freedom was granted 
them, B. C. 536 to B. C. 478, had already spread over 
the provinces of Persia. The extent of these prov- 
inces was such, according to Rawlinson, that Persia 
deserved the title of a mighty empire,^ having in 
the middle of the sixth century before the Christian 
era '' established itself on the ruins of the Assyrian 
and Babylonian kingdoms." 

The monotheistic nature of the religion of the 
Persians, and the fact that it allowed no idolatry nor 
any representation of the Supreme Being under any 
material form,t rendered the Jewish settlement far 
less objectionable in Persia than in any other land, 
and it is, therefore, not improbable that the Jewish 
population was greater in the Persian Empire alone 

* Geo. Rawlinson, "The Religions of the Ancient World," p. 79. 
t Idem, p. 86; the utmost that was allowed was the emblem of the 
winged circle. 



l8o BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

than it was at the same period in Palestine after the 
return from Bab34on. 

The population of Susa in the time of Xerxes is 
supposed to have been about '' a half a million."'^ 

m. As the recently discovered nioiiu- 
ments have, in several instances, enabled us to 
correct the errors of the Greek writers of this age, 
we have given a complete view of the Persian suc- 
cessions from Cyrus to Alexander the Great.f 

Cyrus, B. C. 538. Captured Babylon. The 
Persian army entered Babylonia from the south. 
June 1 6 the Persian general Gobryas marched in. 
In October Cyrus himself entered his new capital. 

B. C. 536, The proclamation to the Jews, end- 
ing captivity. 

B. C. 529. Death of Cyrus. 

Cambyses, B. C. 539. Invaded and conquered 
Egypt ; entered Ethiopia — Oasis of Ammon ; com- 
mitted suicide after eight years' reign alone, two 
years having been with Cyrus. Gomates, a Ma- 
gian, usurped the throne for less than a year, from 
six to eight months. 

Darius I., B. C. 531. Son of Hystaspes. Slew 
Gomates. Zoroastrianism declared the religion of 
the empire. Susa revolted and Babylon also ; the 
former soon subdued, *but Babylon required two 



* Keil's ''Comments on Esther," p. 309, " Book of Esther," Haley, 
p. 81. 

t Chiefly on the authority of A. H. Sayce, ''The Ancient Empires 
of the East." 



THE CAPTIVITY ENDED. l8l 

years, the Persians entering during a festival by 
marching along the dry channel of the Euphrates. 
Herodotus errs in attributing this work to Cyrus. 
The city was taken B. C. 519, in June. Eight con- 
secutive revolts. Darius conquered all and central- 
ized the empire in himself. He conquered the Pun- 
jab (India). The Thracian coast and Macedonia be- 
came tributary. Darius died in the 63d year of 
his age, 36th of his reign, B. C. 486. 

Xerxes, B. C. 486. Attempted to continue 
the war with Athens. Lost his army, lost the ^gean 
isles, the Greek colonies of Asia Minor, the coast of 
Thrace, and the command of the Hellespont. Before 
this campaign he burned the temple of Belus in 
Babylon. He was murdered B. C. 466. He invaded 
Egypt B. C. 484. It was during this reign that 
Esther became queen. 

Artaxerxes I., B. C. 466. Longimanus, so 
called from his long hands. Succeeded after crush- 
ing the Bactrians under Hystaspes and murdering 
another brother. B. C. 455 put down a revolt in 
Egypt. B. C. 449 treaty of peace between Athens and 
Persia in which the Greek colonies in Asia Minor 
were relinquished. A satrap of Syria extorted terms 
of peace. It was during this reign that Nehemiah 
was cup-bearer to the king at Susa, called Shushan. 

Xerxes II., B. C. 435. Assassinated, after 
forty-five days' reign, by his illegitimate brother Sog- 
dianus, and he in turn by Ochus after six months. 
He took the name of Darius. 



1 82 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

Darius II., B. C. 424. Called Nothus. His 
reign a series of revolts for nineteen years. He lost 
Egypt, but by the destruction of the Athenian power 
regained the Greek colonies of Asia Minor. 

Artaxerxes II., B. C. 405. Called Mnemon 
from his great memory. His younger brother, who 
was satrap in Asia Minor, revolted and with 113,000 
soldiers, 13,000 of whom were Greeks under Xeno- 
phon, fought for the Persian throne, but lost his life 
at Cunaxa, and the retreat of the Greeks under 
Xenophon became one of the great feats of history. 
Sparta's forces, however, made themselves masters 
of Western Asia B. C. 399-395, but it was restored 
through Persian gold and dissension at home. Died 
B. C. 359. 

Oclius, B, C. 359. He destroyed all the other 
princes of the royal family. He failed at first to re- 
cover Egypt and lost Phoenicia and Cyprus, but his 
general Bagoas reconquered Egypt and destroyed 
Sidon, and for six years there was peace until B. C. 
338, when Ochus was poisoned. 

Arses, B. C. 338. Was raised to the throne by 
Bagoas after murdering all his brothers. Two years 
after. Arses and his children were murdered and 
Bagoas placed the crown on the head of Codoman- 
nus, who took the name of Darius IH. 

Darius III., B. C. 336. Called Codomannus. 
B. C. 334 his army was defeated by Alexander the 
Great at the plain of Issus, near the northeast corner 
of the Mediterranean. 



THE CAPTIVITY ENDED. 1 83 

Alexander. Alexander then passed on to Tyre 
and besieged and captured it. After this he visited 
Jerusalem during the high-priesthood of Jaddua and 
did honor to the city and Temple."^ 

Alexandria built B. C 332. He then cap- 
tured Gaza and entered Egypt and the Oasis of 
Ammon. He returned to Babylonia, and B. C. 331 
at Gaugamela, ten miles east of Nineveh, defeated 
Darius, who fled and was murdered. The Persian 
Empire fell now to Alexander. 

* According to Josephus. 



l84 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CANONICAL BOOKS. SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH. 

1. Tlie ivord " Canon " is a Greek word and 
means a ''measure," or '' rule/' It was first used in 
the fourth century of the Christian era to designate 
the authorized books of the Bible. 

But the question arises, By whom were these 
books determined ? The history is as follows. 

2. During* the captivity of Judah a spirit 
of reverence for the Law arose, and after they came 
back to Palestine it was cherished to an extent 
never before known. 

3. At no time in the history of the Jews had 
a period existed when a true Canon of the Old Tes- 
tement writings could better have been formed. The 
large number of learned and devout men who were 
found by Ezra competent to explain the Scriptures, 
as recorded by Nehemiah, chapters eight and nine, 
proves that the study of the Law had not been neg- 
lected during the captivity ; and, as we know, several 
of the prophets uttered their prophecies to the na- 
tion not long before, as well as soon after, the return. 

4 The tradition seems to be well sustained 
that this was the era when more careful attention 
was paid to the '' collecting, authenticating, and de- 
fining the canonical books of the Old Testement 



THE CANONICAL BOOKS. 1 85 

and in multiplying copies of them, by careful tran- 
scription/'"^ than ever before or since. 

5. The traditions of the various sects had 

not yet distracted attention from that which was 
more trustworthy in Jewish history and in the 
clearer and more certain deliverances of their an- 
cient seers and prophets. 

6. We must noTV remember that all the 
books, except the Mosaic books of the Pentateuch, 
were in separate manuscripts. Those which Ezra 
had were either copies of those which had escaped 
the destruction of Jerusalem, or they were the orig- 
inal manuscripts themselves. 

7. That some manuscripts did escape that 
destruction is evident from the words of Daniel 
(9:2), by which we see that he, while in Babylon, 
was in possession of the writings of Jeremiah and 
of other books '' and of the Law of Moses the servant 
of God," verses 11, 13, seventeen years before the 
close of the captivity, namely B. C. 553. 

But even without any definite statement as to the 
actual existence of the manuscripts of the Old Tes- 
tament books, it is incredible that with all their devo- 
tion to the Law there should have been no copies in 
the possession of any one. When we remember their 
intense regard for their ancient history and for the 
songs of Zion ; and when we consider the reveren- 
tial learning and ability of such men as Ezra, Nehe- 

- '* Introduction to Hebrew Literature," J. W. Etheridge, M. A., 
London, 1856, p. 20. 



1 86 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

miah, Zechariah, Haggai, Malachi and others, it is 
not reasonable to suppose that there should have 
been no copies of the sacred books extant at the 
time of the return. 

8. Ezra was not only skilled in the He- 
brew, but also in the Chaldee, called Aramaic. He 
was thoroughly acquainted with the literature of the 
Jewish nation and deeply imbued with the spirit of 
his office as priest and scribe. And Ezra was not 
alone in this respect. 

9. It was in his time, as the Jewish writings 
tell us, that able and devout men among the Jews, 
called elders, were assembled under Ezra's direction 
with the purpose of forming a body sometimes called 
the Great Council or Synagogue. 

These elders, with Ezra and probably Nehemiah, 
the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and years after- 
ward Malachi, continued to meet through many 
years, some of the most learned and devout taking 
the places of those who died, until the death of one 
'' Simon the Just," about B. C. 300,^ when this coun- 
cil was apparently resolved into that court of the 
Jews called the ''Sanhedrin.'' Jewish tradition as- 
serts that the entire number of the Great Synagogue 
was one hundred and twenty, during about as many 
years. 

10. This body of " The Great Synag^ogue" 
determined the number of the books. 

* B. C. 291, Maclear's ** New Testament History," p. ii; and B, C. 
310-290, VVestcott's *' Bible in the Church," p. 300. 



THE CANONICAL BOOKS. 1 87 

A letter to some of the Jews in Egypt after the 
Temple was built states that Nehemiah had already 
collected '' a library " in the Temple. 

In this account it is said that Nehemiah, while 
founding a library, gathered together the writings 
concerning the kings and prophets, and the writings 
of David, and letters of kings about offerings." But 
the chief object was to collect those w^ritings which 
were not only ancient and w^ere copies of the ancient 
history, but those which had to do with the relations 
of God to the people and their duties towards God. 

11. From many allusions to these times it is 
evident that there never was a period when the peo- 
ple were so willing, and even earnestly desirous, to 
learn and obey whatever was duty.f 

What was now wanted by the whole Jewish peo- 
ple was such a collection from all their literature 
that it should be wxU authenticated and trustworthy 
as history, and at the same time authoritative as a 
guide and as a rule of faith and practice. 

13. From what Tve have now said, it is 
evident that no one was more competent for the 
work of gathering these records than were Ezra and 
his associates, and the Jewish records assert that he, 
with Nehemiah and others, performed this work of 

* Mace. 2:13. 

t For proofs of spiritual activity of this period, B. C. 536, read Ezra 
6:16-22. That they had the prophets Haggai and Zechariah with them, 
read 6:14. That they were ready to worship God anywhere before 
they had a temple, 3:1-6. That they called Ezra and caused him to 
read and explain the Law to them, Neh. 8:1, etc. 



1 88 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

gathering and selecting, and thus forming that col- 
lection of the ancient writings which not only he, 
but those of this the most learned and devout age, 
considered to be truthful, and, as Josephus says, 
''directions of God," or as Eusebius quoted him, 
''justly considered divine/' 

13. Wlien these writings were g^athered 
and pronounced to be the books which, Josephus 
says, were those "comprising a record of all time 
and justly confided in," as he declares, "no one ever 
after ventured to add anything to them, nor take 
away from them, nor alter them.""^ The Old Testa- 
ment was now formed and settled and the Canonical 
period was closed. 

THE INSTITUTION OF THE SYNAGOGUE. 

14. The meaning* of the word synagog'ue 

is simply "a gathering together," but the name 
became, in after years, a term for the place and 
building where the Jews gathered for worship, and 
this meaning continues to the present day. 

15. After the exile began, the Jews, having 
no temple in Babylonia, may have had meeting- 
places, but the synagogue, as it existed in the time 
of our Saviour and since, does not appear to have 
been instituted till long after the return from the 
captivity. 

* Jos., Contra Apion, lib. I., 8. Eiiseb., '' Eccl. History," lib. TIL, chap, 
lo. Josephus lived in the time of the apostles. He was born A. D. 37 
and died after A. D. 97 and made this statement 400 years after the 
Canon, or list, had been closed. 



THE CANONICAL BOOKS. 1 89 

16. Immediately after the captivity the 

synagogue became fully organized as a place where 
the Jews gathered to read the law, and have it read 
and explained in the language of the people ; for 
during the captivity the ancient pure Hebrew was 
to a great extent forgotten among the common peo- 
ple, and the Chaldsean language, which was that of 
their conquerors, was adopted. This language was 
unlike the ancient Hebrew, and was called the 
Aramaean or Aramaic, and after the captivity, at 
the synagogues, there were always present some 
who were able to read and explain the books of the 
law in both dialects,"^ Neh. 8 : 8. Although the insti- 
tution of the synagogue, simply as such a gathering 
as we have just mentioned, took place before the 
second Temple was finished, it was continued ever 
afterward. 

17, The distinctive purpose of the Tem- 
ple was for the offering of the sacrifices, and that of 
the synagogues w^as for prayer and hearing the 
Scriptures. In later times, just before and after 
the Christian era, it became in addition a place for 
the meeting of Jewish courts, and not only was sen- 
tence pronounced in these 'courts, but punishment 
followed upon sentence immediately. Hence we 
read that scourging might, at some time, be inflicted 
there. See Matt. 10:17; Mark 13:9, and elsewhere. 

* These men gave rise to a class of writings called " Interpreta- 
tions," or in their language Targums, which are also explanations 
as well as interpretations, and give the ideas of the earliest writers 
upon Scripture. 



IQO BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

WHO WERE THE SAMARITANS? 

18. When the ten tribes were carried 

away captive by Sargon, B. C. 721, other nations 
were transferred from the region to which these cap- 
tives were taken, according to the custom which we 
have mentioned (pages 160 and 161). A large num- 
ber of other captives from other lands were import- 
ed to Samaria, the former capital and region of the 
ten tribes. Many of these imported heathen cap- 
tives joined with the remnant of the Israelites still 
remaining after the captivity, and made up a mixed 
worship of Jehovah as taught by one of the priests, 
2 Kings 17:34. This priest, at their request, the king 
of Assyria returned to them, to teach them the Jew- 
ish way of worship, 2 Kings 17:27. This state of 
things continued in Samaria until after the return 
of Judah from the captivity. 

When the Jews undertook to rebuild the Temple 
under Zerubbabel, these Samaritans made applica- 
tion to join them in that work and were refused. 
The refusal aroused their enmity and active oppo- 
sition, which was greatly increased in after times, as 
we shall see. 

SHECHEM AND SAMARIA. 

19. Shechem ivas thirty miles north from 
Jerusalem and five miles southeast from the city of 
Samaria. The district of Samaria must be distin- 
guished from the city of Samaria ; the latter having 



THE CANONICAL BOOKS. igi 

been the residence of the kings of Israel, or of 
the northern kingdom, for many years. At the 
time of Alexander the Great the Samaritans were 
expelled from this city because of a mutiny against 
one of his appointed governors of Syria ; but a rem- 
nant was permitted to occupy Shechem,^ where they 
have dwindled down to the present day. 

THE SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH. 

20. One very ancient copy of the Penta- 
teuch, or first five books, called the Law of Moses, 
remains among this remnant of the Samaritans, at 
Shechem in Palestine. It is written in the ancient 
Hebrew letters used before the captivity, and this 
particular copy is the oldest in the world, so far as 
is at present known. 

It is written in the pure old Hebrew language, 
but contains only the first five books of the Old Tes- 
tament in one single roll. It is called the Samar- 
itan, only because it is owned by the Samaritans 
and has been in their possession from a period sev- 
eral centuries before the Christian era down to the 
present time.f 

31. It has been proven that during and after 
the captivity all the writings of the Scriptures, and 
especially the books of Moses, were transcribed only 
into the square forms of Hebrew letters which are 

* Prideaux, Part I., Book 5. 

f What is called the Samaritan translation is a translation of this 
Pentateuch into the Samaritan language and is not the Samaritan 
Pentateuch. 



192 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

now used in all our Hebrew Bibles.^ It seems highly 
probable therefore that this Samaritan manuscript 
has been in existence ever since the time when, at 
the request of the Samaritans, the Assyrian king 
sent back a priest (page 190) to teach them, and ''he 
taught them the fear of the Lord," 2 Kings 17:28, 
B. C. 720. 

23. But It Is proper here to state that this 
manuscript is thought, by some, to owe its origin to 
the time when Nehemiah expelled from Jerusalem 
the grandson of the high-priest, Manasseh by name, 
because he had married the daughter of Sanballat, 
their Samaritan enemy. This expulsion of Manas- 
seh took place B. C. 434 (according to Ussher). After 
this Sanballat built a Samaritan temple on Mt. Ger- 
izim and made Manasseh high-priest.f The enmity 
already existing between the Jews and the Samar- 
itans was made more bitter by this act, and it con- 
tinued ever after. 

33. But although the Samaritans at some 
time must have obtained their copy of the Law of 
Moses from the Jews, as the latter say, yet it is not 
probable that this copy of the Samaritan Pentateuch 
was obtained from them after this enmity sprang 
up, and, moreover, because it is written in those 

* The proofs of the use of the square Hebrew since Ezra are found 
given in Conder's " Handbook to the Bible " (Gemara, Sanhedrin, f. 21, 
22), p. 174. '' Home's Introd." H., p. 12-17 fo^ the versions of the Pen- 
tateuch (Samaritan), Smith's '' Dictionary of the Bible," Vol. HI. 

t In the time of Darius Nothus, B.C. 409, so Prideaux says, "Con- 
nection,'' Vol. I., pp. 357-359- 



THE CANONICAL BOOKS. I93 

letters in which Ezra did not write the law after the 
captivity. If it was written before, then there is at 
least one mannscript copy which escaped the mis- 
fortunes of the captivity and has come down to the 
present day. 

34. This manuscript has been mentioned 
by several of the early fathers of the third century 
and has been copied several times during the past 
three centuries. With the exception of some dates, 
the variations from the present Hebrew copies are 
unimportant. 



Biblical History and Geography. 



194 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER V. 

WHAT WAS SCRIPTURE? THE SEPTUAGINT. 

1. The first five books, called the books of 
Moses, seem always to have existed in one roll, and 
these constituted ''The Law," and were the only- 
Scriptures read in the synagogues until the time of 
Antiochus Epiphanes, B. C. i68,^ who bitterly perse- 
cuted the Jews and forbade the use of the Law in 
the synagogues. During the time of this prohibi- 
tion, only the Prophets were read, in the place of the 
Law, but when the persecution ceased the Jews be- 
gan the reading of the Law again, but continued the 
reading of the prophets.f 

2. In order that the Pentateuch should be 
read through in one year, the entire work was divi- 
ded into fifty-four sections,:}: so as to supply a por- 
tion for each Sabbath.§ These divisions were made 
long before the time of the persecution just referred 

* This is the date of his visit to Jerusalem and profanation of the 
Temple. Clinton in Woodward and Gates. 

t Prideaux, Part IT., Book 3. 

I In Babylon, but formerly in Palestine into 153, for three years' 
reading. '' The New Testament Scriptures," Charteris, p. 17. Ether- 
idge, " Introduction to Hebrew Literature," p. 201. 

§ The year was not so determined in that era that the same number 
of weeks, or Sabbaths, would always occur one year with another, some 
years having as many as fifty-four Sabbaths, or thirteen months. 
Ayres' Dictionary, ''Chronology." 



WHAT WAS SCRIPTURE? I95 

to ; indeed the earliest Hebrew writers think they 
existed almost so far back as the time of Moses."^ 

3. In the time of Ezra the books of Ezra, Ne- 
hemiah, Chronicles, Esther, Malachi, and possibly 
Daniel, were not included in the Canonical books of 
that time, simply because they were either not com- 
pleted or too recently completed. Scripture, or the 
Bible as we would call it, consisted only of the five 
books. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and 
Deuteronomy, in one roll. The Psalms of David 
were sung in the Temple worship, but no other books 
appear to have been used in public worship until the 
time we have already stated, B. C. 168. But the Jew- 
iwSh writers included in the word ''prophets " some of 
the historical books.-j* 

Ezra is considered by both ancient Jews and by 
modern scholars to be the author both of the Chron- 
icles and of Ezra4 Nehemiah was the author of 
the book bearing his name, and this is the last histor^ 
teal book of Scripture, as Malachi is the last prophetic 
book. The book of Nehemiah contains the history 
of the Jews from a period beginning 12 years after 
the close of the book of Ezra, B. C. 456, to about no 
years after the Captivity, or B. C. 426, with the excep- 
tion we shall hereafter state, p. 219. Esther became 
queen of Xerxes B. C. 478. § The inscription on the 

*' "Talmud," Berokoth, 12; Etheridge, ''Introduction to Hebrew Lit- 
erature, p. 201. 

t Westcott, '* Bible in the Church," p. 29. 

X Westcott, p. 2)^. 

\ ''The Book of Esther," Andover, 1885. p. 18. 



196 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

rocks at Behustan, 215 miles northeast of Babylon, 
has shown that this king was the Ahasuerus of the 
book of Esther, which was written some years after 
she became queen. 

4. In regard to the size of those ancient 
books, it should be remembered that it was not 
always convenient to bind together in any way more 
than a very few of them in one volume. They were 
in rolls, as the word ''volume " means, and when we 
know that one ancient roll of only the Law of Moses, 
of average size, in manuscript, which is preserved in 
the Collegiate Library, Manchester, England, is 160 
feet long and 20 inches wide, we may readily see 
that very few could be handled at a time. 

THE ORDER OF THE BOOKS. 

5. The books of the Old Testament were 
named in the order of their importance in Jewish 
estimation, and not as we would name them to-day 
in the order of their position in the single volume of 
our Bibles. The books of the Law always took pre- 
cedence in the order, then the Prophets, and after 
them the Psalms, as three general divisions, and 
this statement included all, Luke 24 : 44. That some 
of the books were kept in separate rolls to a very late 
period is evident even in the time of Christ, for when 
he appeared in the synagogue at Nazareth only the 
roll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, and 
from this he read, Luke 4: 17. 

6. But in the enumeration of the books indi- 



WHAT WAS SCRIPTURE? I97 

vidually, except in the case of the five '' books of the 
Law," which, as we have said, have never been 
known otherwise than in one volume, it is evident 
that some variations of the exact order have oc- 
curred. These variations had their origin in the 
Septuagint" translation, wherein the translators not 
only changed the Hebrew order, but the Hebrew 
names of some, and even divided some of the books, 
making two or more out of one. 

7. As an illustratiou of the changes in 
names of the books, the translators gave the Greek 
names: Genesis, ''the beginning;" Exodus, ''the 
going out ;" Leviticus, " concerning Levitical law ;" 
Numbers (of Latin derivation), because the book 
contains the census of the tribes or numbers ;f Deu- 
teronomy, the Greek for "the repeated law," be- 
cause of the repetition of the law. 

8. The JeTTS used the Initial Hebrew 
words of each book in the Pentateuch for its name ; 
but this does not occur afterwards. The books of 
Samuel were one with the older Jews, and so were 
the books of Kings ; but the Greek translators made 
them the first and second books of the " kingdoms,'' 
and the books of Kings came in course as the third 
and fourth books, and this is the reason for the addi- 
tions to the titles in our English Bibles, " otherwise 
called the first book, the second book, etc., of Kings." 

* Described hereafter, p. 204. 

t The Septuagint gave it the name " Numbers," but the English is 
the translation of the Greek, but in the other case the Greek words are 
used in English letters. 



198 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

END OF THE CANONICAL PERIOD. 

9. By this term is meant the end of that time 
whose history is included in the latest of the Old Tes- 
tament books. Some of these books contain histo- 
ries which extend to a period nearer the Christian 
era than do the histories of others, as in the case of 
the books of the Chronicles, of Esther, of Ezra, and 
Neheiniah. 

10. The hooks of the Old Testament, which 
are thirty-nine in number, present the records of 
events which transpired during the course of more 
than 3,500 years, or from the creation of Adam to 
the third century before the Christian era. But we 
must keep in mind the distinction between the time 
when events occurred and the time when such events 
were first recorded. There yet remains another date, 
namely that of the period when the collator or colla- 
tors of all these manuscripts produced his or their 
own work of collecting and arranging them into one 
history or one volume. Let us suppose a case. 

11. A historian undertakes to write a true 
history of the times of the Norman conquest. In 
gathering the materials for this history he visits the 
libraries and collections and finds an old manuscript- 
history of events written by some one who was on 
the field at the battle of Hastings, and another writ- 
ten by one who lived in the times soon after and 
had heard from living witnesses of the exploits of the 
warrior Hereward in his contests with the Normans. 



WHAT WAS SCRIPTURE? I99 

In another manuscript he finds a collection of the 
ballads of those times commemorating the acts of 
some brave knight and some reminiscences of that 
age as communicated by tradition to immediate de- 
scendants. With these and other materials he com- 
piles the history dCvSired. 

13. Such a history of the Norman conquest of 
England would be credible, first, if the editor or 
compiler in his researches truthfully found and 
wisely used such manuscripts as we have described ; 
and second, if the manuscripts and his other authori- 
ties were in themselves trustworthy. But how is 
this to be tested ? We read the new book when fin- 
ished, and in order to learn something satisfactory 
upon these two points we now start out upon our 
examinations. Our question is. Was there ever such 
an event as the battle of Hastings ? How shall we 
get testimony ? 

13. The g^eography of the country, local re- 
mains, and other facts may furnish us with evi- 
dence for or against. In one chapter of the book it 
is stated that there was an old castle in which Wil- 
liam lodged the night before the battle, and that 
there is from it no view north, but a fair view to- 
wards the south. 

We visit Hastings and find the remains of an old 
castle, and we see high hills on the north and none 
on the south. Herein we see some corroboration of 
the history. But now some one shows that there 
is no evidence that any battle ever was fought at 



200 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

Hastings, and the oldest manuscripts sustain the 
objection, and show that the battle of the conquest 
was fought at a place called Senlac. 

This now throws a doubt upon the whole history. 
There is contradiction, perhaps error. We go back 
to the study of the manuscripts and we find that a 
more recent collator of the history of the conquest^ 
writing with a view to readers of his own times, 
introduced the new name, '' Hastings," as better 
understood than another name, Senlac, and all sub- 
sequent copyists followed his manuscript. 

But the early name, '' Senlac," is found nowhere, 
while it still remains true that no battle was fought 
at Hastings. Additional doubt shadows the whole 
history. But now in a monastery an old manuscript 
is found, written centuries ago, describing some of 
the old abbeys, among which one is mentioned 
named '' Battle Abbey," followed by a short explana- 
tion, stating that it is located at the village called 
'' Battle," quite near Hastings. The last part is an 
interpolation in the manuscript, and evidently writ- 
ten many years after the writing of the original 
manuscript, and both authors are unknown. 

We now visit the village of Battle, near Hastings, 
and find local traditions handed down in connection 
with an old abbey still remaining and built upon the 
spot where Harold fell. Arrow-heads and fragments 
of battle-axes are found and are shown to us ; the 
former are found scattered over the hills only on one 
side. This corroborates another statement, that the 



WHAT WAS SCRIPTURE? 201 

Normans used bows and arrows, while the Anglo- 
Saxons used only battle-axes. 

All these discoveries strengthen the links in the 
chain of evidences between facts and their history, 
until all doubts are cleared away and even the '' va- 
lidity of doubt itself is doubtful." 

14. Just such a course of research, of discov- 
ery, and of success in final vindication has attended 
almost every historical announcement in Scripture. 

15. At the close of the Canonical period, what- 
ever books made up the Canon were so rigidly guard- 
ed ever afterwards in every way, by memorizing, by 
commentary and paraphrase, by increasing the cop- 
ies in manuscripts, and by numbering letters and 
words, that it is impossible that any material differ- 
ence exists between them and the books which make 
up the Old Testament of the present day. These 
books have not been changed in any important re- 
spect during the 2,200 years which have transpired 
since the close of the Canon. 

16. But uow the chief discussion is upon the 
question. Did the books, at the close of the Canonical 
period, fairly represent those books which the origi- 
nal authors wrote before the Canon was closed ? In 
other words, have we a true copy of the books of 
Moses and true copies of those who wrote after him ? 
The second question is. Were those ancient books 
trustworthy — were they truly historical ? Did Ezra 
and the others wisely and truly use the old manu- 
scripts, and were those manuscripts trustworthy ? 

9* 



202 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

17 Now it will be perceived that we occupy 
the position of those who undertook to corroborate 
the history of the battle of Hastings. We shall pro- 
ceed somewhat as we did then. 

From the repeated and varied discoveries in 
Egypt, Assyria, and Palestine we have a repetition 
of the names of kings and of cities never known 
before the present century except as they were 
mentioned in Scripture. They have been recently 
found recorded upon the monuments which had 
been buried centuries before the captivity, and 
brought to light only in the present century. In- 
scriptions have been discovered which repeated his- 
torical statements of early Scripture books, some of 
which statements had either been omitted entirely 
by every Greek historian or had been contradicted 
by them, but which, when the hieroglyphic and 
cuneiform languages could be read, were proved to 
be accurate statements — thus giving testimony to 
the fact that the Scripture accounts were more an- 
cient and more accurate than any of the Greek or 
other histories. 

18, Again: peculiar terms of art occur in 
the Scriptures, with official titles, trade names, allu- 
sions to customs, and forms of expression, the origins 
of which have been found only among the nations 
where, or about which, these particular books of 
Scripture purport to have been written ; and they 
could be recognized only after the hieroglyphic his- 
tories of these ancient nations could be read. 



WHAT WAS SCRIPTURE? 203 

The inferences from all these parallelisms are 
apparent : these Scripture books are truly historical, 
they contain the records of facts and are trust- 
worthy. 

At what time all these histories were committed 
to writing, or who were the writers, we are not in all 
cases able to show ; but inability in this respect does 
not disprove the fact of authenticity. 

VARIATIONS IN THE BOOKS. 

19. Wlien Tve consider the ages through 
which many of the books of the Bible have passed, 
and the singular conditions upon which they have 
thus passed through those ages, we may readily ap- 
preciate the claim of a supernatural preservation. 

There are writings, more ancient than those of 
the Mosaic manuscripts, which have come down to 
us from long before the time of Moses ; such are the 
so-called ''Books of the Dead,'' found in the tombs 
of Egypt f but these writings, as soon as they were 
finished, were immediately locked up amid the spi- 
ces, the darkness and protection of the tomb, till re- 
cently brought out, while the contents of the books 
of the Mosaic Law, and other manuscripts of Scrip- 
ture, have come percolating down through the ages, 
doing battle all that time with thousands of scribes, 
and indeed with any transcriber who felt inclined to 

* The ^' Book of the Dead " is found in more than one copy, though 
originally one, having been added to — hence we use the plural term. 
Called also '* Ritual of the Dead." Rawlinson's '' Religions of the An- 
cient World," p. 26, note. 



204 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

copy a book ; and that work of transcribing has con- 
tinued from the period when the Mosaic manuscripts 
were completed down to the period of the return 
from the captivity, or of the close of the Canon — that 
is over a thousand years — and from that period to 
the present. 

Excepting variations in some numerical figures 
and in a few names, which may be accounted for, 
and in some cases corrected, all the rest of the vari- 
ations are of so small importance that the Bible, as 
we possess it, may well be considered a literary mon- 
ument, standing alone and unexampled amid the lit- 
erature of all time. And this not only for its singular 
preservation, but for that evident unity of purpose, 
persistent through all its variety of subjects and 
authors, until the time when the last prophetic 
utterance closed the Canon. 

Then there stood out in luminous form a fin- 
ished work, whose pages exhibit the proof of a sys- 
tematic plan, designed from the very beginning to 
fill out progressively its mysterious pages, until the 
last letter was complete, in order that a world might 
see, in one volume, the object of creation, the neces- 
sity of law, the illustrations of judgment and of 
providence, and the redemption and coming salva- 
tion of the race. 

THE SEPTUAGINT, B. C. 286-285. (?) 

20. The conquest of the Persians under 
Alexander introduced the Greek language into 



WHAT WAS SCRIPTURE? 205 

Western Asia and other lands. This introduction 
prepared the way for a very extensive circulation 
of the entire Old Testament writings throughout the 
surrounding nations and even the world. For up 
to this time all the Old Testament was in the He- 
brew language ; but as soon as the translation into 
the Greek was made, of which we shall now speak, 
even those who could not speak Greek could easily 
find those who could, because among the learned 
and unlearned there were many who knew Greek 
who did not understand the Hebrew. 

When, therefore, the death of Alexander was 
followed by the partition of his conquests among his 
generals, Eg3^pt became, in B. C. 322, governed by 
the Ptolemies, the second of whom, Ptolemy Phil- 
ad elphus, B. C. 286-247, had the Law of Moses, that 
is the first five books, translated from the Hebrew 
into the Greek. 

31. Under the first of the Ptolemies (Soter) 
the Alexandrian Museum was founded for the re- 
ception of learned men, as well as of literary treas- 
ures, and Alexandria soon superseded Athens as 
the chief nursery of Greek literature. Under his 
successor and son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, the library 
of the Museum contained 90,000 volumes of distinct 
works, but 400,000 with the duplicates. 

Beginning with some period in the reign of the 
first Ptolemy (Soter), the Jews were attracted to 
Alexandria in large numbers as settlers, to whom 
this Ptolemy assigned a suburb on the coast towards 



2o6 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

the east. The city became the resort of some of the 
wisest and ablest men of the age, including such 
men as Apelles the painter, Euclid the mathemati- 
cian, and many others, artists and scholars. 

33. But under Ptolemy II., Pliiladelplius, 
B. C. 283, the Museum became most prosperous, and 
among its members were numbered grammarians, 
natural philosophers, astronomers, physicians, poets, 
and Greek philosophers of the schools.^ It was under 
this state of things that the translation above re- 
ferred to was asked by the king and was undertaken, 
according to tradition, by seventy of the most learned 
Jews of that date, and hence called '^ The translation 
of the seventy," or the Septuagint. 

23, Although at first only the Pentateuch 
was translated, the other books were, in after years, 
gradually added to this translation. The Septuagint 
was used among the Jews not only of Alexandria, 
but of Palestine also, and during the times of our 
Saviour and the apostles was more frequently quoted 
than was the original Hebrew.f 

*" Baedeker's " Egypt," p. 210. 

t Prideaux states that there were 100,000 Jews in Alexandria at this 
time, B. C. 270. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE TALiMUD. 20/ 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE ORIGIN OF THE TALMUD. 

1. It^vill be remembered that although tin- 
der Cyrus the Jews were permitted full liberty to 
return to Palestine, not all the Jewish nation ac- 
cepted the privilege. A very large number of the 
wealthiest, and indeed of the most learned classes, 
remained behind. They did much for the support 
of the Temple and for other objects among those 
who had returned to Palestine, but they themselves 
continued the synagogue service in Babylonia and 
in Persia, as appears from various statements and 
allusions, not only in Jewish writings, but also in 
other history. 

2. Among* those Jei^^s, however, who had re. 
turned to Palestine there arose very early a class of 
devout and earnest students of the Law and of the 
other books of Scripture. There began also a most 
diligent collection of the traditions of the Jewish 
race and the opinions of the learned. Meanwhile a 
very constant correspondence was cherished between 
the colonists abroad and those in the Holy Land, 
and both at home and abroad there were those who 
were learned in the Law and in the other books. 

The whole object of study and correspondence 
among the learned was to explain and illustrate the 



208 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

sacred literature in all its branches. The informa- 
tion thus gained laid the foundation of that which 
was soon to be called the Talmud, a name literally 
meaning Doctrine or Instruction. 

3. But before we treat further on this re- 
markable work it is well to consider certain con- 
ditions which added much to the formation of the 
Talmud. 

Although the Jews reformed forever from all 
tendency to idolatry, they nevertheless differed 
among themselves on many details of both faith and 
practice, and hence there grew up an exceedingly 
critical study of the literature and teachings of the 
book. 

THE VARIOUS SCHOOLS. 

4. Between the close of the Canonical period 
and the Christian era there arose many intellectual 
and studious ones, who ranged themselves under 
three general and widespread schools. 

(i) The Traditionalists, called by the Jews the 
Masoretic School, or Pharisees. 

(2) The Philosophic school, of whom were 
the Sadducees. 

(3) The Kahalistic school. 

The first of these confined themselves strictly to 
Scripture and tradition. They derived their name 
from the Hebrew word masar, to deliver, as from 
hand to hand. 

The second entered the paths of speculation un- 
known to the fathers. They were pleased with the 



THE ORIGIN OF THE TALMUD. 209 

Greek philosophy, due to their contact with the 
schools of Alexandria. They strove to harmonize 
the principles of Judaism with the doctrines of Py- 
thagoras, the philosophy of Plato, and the logic of 
Aristotle. Thus, as virtue was its own reward, they 
taught that there can be no future reward, and there- 
fore that there was no future life and no resurrec- 
tion ; and this was the belief of the Sadducees. 

The third school, Kabalistic, believed in the mys- 
teries, or secret meaning of the words of the Law. 
They thought they could detect secret truths in the 
words, and sometimes the letters of the words, which 
others could not apprehend. They taught that the 
truths were to the words of Scripture what the soul 
is to the body, and that we are mistaken if we see 
only the letter in the Scripture, and fail to ascend 
by the help of the letter to the ideas of the Infinite 
Mind.^ 

5. From the men of the Masoretic school, 
who devoted themselves strictly to the Law and Tra- 
dition, arose a series of academies, or scholastic in- 
stitutions. Those were presided over by the most 
learned members of that body, which, as we have 
said, followed upon the Great Synagogue after the 
death of Simon the Just, and which was called the 
Sanhedrin, or council.f This council, about this 
time, became the seat of supreme legislative power 

'•• Both Josephus and Philo gave descriptions of this class of Jews 
under the name of Essenes, holy men. See Prideaux, Part II., Bk. 5, 
also Etheridge's " Introduction to Hebrew Literature," p. 21. 

t " Introduction to Hebrew Literature," Etheridge. p. 29. 

Biblical History and Geography. 



210 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

among the Jews, in both civil and ecclesiastical mat- 
ters, but was subsequently divested of some of its 
powers by Gabinius, the Roman governor of Syria, 
B. C. 57.^ It is referred to in the New Testament 
(Matt. 5:22; 26 : 59 ; Acts 4:15; 5:27, etc.). 

6. But tlie Sanhedrln, which was presided 
over by the high-priest, became the centre of learn- 
ing and authority so far back as B. C. 200 years. 

The priesthood was recognized as the legitimate 
ministers of the altar; but the people, with whom 
the Mosaic Law was supreme, entering as it did into 
all the details of their lives, regarded the expositors 
and interpreters of that Law with the highest honor. 
With them ''the voice of the rabbi" became ''the 
voice of God.'^f 

7. For many years before the Christian era 
the Sanhedrin was the highest authority in matters 
of faith, and its utterances, or more particularly 
those of the most learned of its members, both in 
traditions and in opinions, became so numerous that 
from being only orally delivered, they were commit- 
ted to writing, and these writings and opinions upon 
the Law were the foundation of that voluminous 
work called the Talmud, with its divisions. 

FORM OF THE TALMUD. 

8. The Talmud tlierefore in the main was the 
growth of centuries, beginning from about B. C. 220 

*- See Parkhurst's Lexicon, ''Sanhedrin," p. 825. 

t " Introduction to Hebrew Literature," Etheridge, p. 29. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE TALMUD. 211 

to several centuries after Christ. It was composed 
of the text of the Law, both the written law and that 
which was believed to be additional law, although 
only handed down from age to age, but never writ- 
ten. This was called the oral law. All this com- 
prised that part of the Talmud called *^ the repeti- 
tion," or in the Hebrew the Mishna. Then came 
the '' Commentary " upon every part, and this was 
called the Gamara. 

THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD. 

9. As there had been a very larg'e and 
learned class of Jews in Babylon from the Cap- 
tivity to the time of Christ, there was also a corre- 
sponding number of very important schools in several 
cities on the Euphrates and east of it. These also 
gathered a Talmud, with its Mishna and Gamara; 
but this — called the Babylonian Talmud — was of 
later origin than the Jerusalem Talmud. 

A WONDERFUL MEMORY. 

10. The varions traditions which in all vari- 
ety of expression, as unwritten laws, as commenta- 
ries and opinions, went to make up the Talmud, 
with its Mishna and Gamara, had remained unwrit- 
ten for generations because there w^as a rule given 
out by some of their learned men and teachers that 
"things delivered by word of mouth must not be 
recorded.*' But about A. D. i8o one of the most 
influential and wisest of their number, Rabbi Jehu- 



212 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

dah, decided that the time had come when the Mish- 
na must be committed to writing. Rabbi Jehudah, 
for whom the greatest veneration existed, began 
with his fellow-laborers the heavy task of reducing 
all these traditions and decisions of many genera- 
tions to a written form, and this work was performed 
at Tiberias (on the lake of the same name, 70 miles 
north of Jerusalem), where a celebrated school exist- 
ed after Titus had destroyed Jerusalem."^ It is a 
memorable fact that for nearly four centuries the 
vast amount of literature which composed the Tal- 
mud had been stored only in the memory of the 
learned members of the Jewish nation. 

11. The vastness of this labor of memorial 
possession may be comprehended in some degree 
when we learn that of only one rabbif 300 magis- 
terial sentences are recorded in the Talmud, and 
years before his time Rabbi Hillel;}: reduced 600 or 
700 sections, which had been known before only in a 
complicated mass, into orders, divisions, chapters, 
and verses, whereby they could be better memorized. 

12. Although this cultivation of the mem- 
ory was carried on to a very great extent among the 
Jews during one or two centuries before the Chris- 
tian era, and to a degree unexcelled by any other 

'^ Etheridge, '' Introduction to Jewish Literature/' p. 88. Jerusalem 
was destroyed and the Temple burned A. D. 70. 

t Simon Ben Yochai, time of the Emperor Antonine. ''Introduction 
to Hebrew Literature," p. 82. 

I He was head of the Sanhedrin B. C. 32. *' Introduction to He- 
brew Literature," p. 37. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE TALMUD. 213 

nation, there are evidences that long before the Cap- 
tivity the cultivation of the memory was largely 
encouraged. 
13. Manuscripts were rare and costly, and 

therefore methods were adopted, as in the composi- 
tion of several of the Psalms, of Proverbs, and Lam- 
entations, which were aids to memorizing. One 
method was by beginning consecutive verses or sec- 
tions with consecutive letters of the alphabet. Psalm 
119 is composed of 176 verses, divided into a number 
of sections, the whole number of sections equal to 
the letters in the Hebrew alphabet (22), and all the 
eight verses of each section begin with the same let- 
ter. In Proverbs 31 : 10-31, the initial letters of all 
the verses follow the order of the Hebrew alphabet. 
The Lamentations of Jeremiah are composed in five 
poems, each, excepting the third, consisting of 22 
sections or verses, a verse for each letter in the 
alphabet. The first four poems begin with the first 
letter of the alphabet, and in each poem, which 
makes one chapter, the after sections continue in 
their initial letters to follow the order of the alpha- 
bet. In the third chapter however the stanzas are in 
sets of three of the Bible verses, and each verse in 
the set begins with the same letter of the alphabet, 
but all the sets are in the alphabetical order. Such 
methods suggest the work of memorizing. 

14. Again, we may say that, in view of all these 
facts, it does not seem possible that ''the Law" 
could have been forgotten in the Captivity among 



214 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

all the learned and devout men, some of whom were 
prophets. It would seem that even without the writ- 
ten copies of the Law, Ezra, if he had so desired, 
could not have, as some suppose, introduced into the 
Law an entirely new book of Leviticus or Deuteron- 
omy, and yet no one amid all the Jews have discov- 
ered the forgery. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 21$ 



CHAPTER VII. 

CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

We add the following remarks in the nature of a 
general review and inference, which are more appro- 
priate to this era of the Jewish history than to any- 
other. 

1. There never was a time when the Jew- 
ish people exhibited such a humble and yet de- 
termined spirit of obedience to the Mosaic Law as 
when they returned from the Captivity. All the 
history of those times as derived from the Jewish 
writings, both sacred and secular, fully attests this 
spirit. All their hopes for the future, both political 
and religious, were conditioned upon outward obedi- 
ence to the requirements of the Law as explained 
by the teachings of their ancient prophets or illustra- 
ted and made more impressive in the Psalms or 
songs of Israel and pictured to them in the happier 
days of the Temple service. All that appertained to 
the history of the past was precious. This fact, as 
we have shown, was illustrated in many ways. 

3. Moreover, from the Scripture history of Ezra 
and Nehemiah, it is plain that a large body of skilled 
men, ably instructed in the Law and acquainted with 
the sacred writings of the Jewish people, were among 
the captives before the close of the Captivity. The 



2l6 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

Levites and priests were in existence, and the proph- 
ets were among them, and they met in various places 
for worship and for the songs of Zion. The condi- 
tion of the Jews in Babylonia and elsewhere was 
favorable to the cultivation of their literature, and 
they were allowed many privileges. 

It is plain from the letter of Artaxerxes, Ezra 
7:11, and from other testimonies, that not only Ezra 
but many others studied the Jewish writings long 
before the close of the Captivity. The Samaritan 
Pentateuch in its letters may offer evidence on this 
point, for the new letters in which the Law and the 
canonized books were written very probably found 
their origin in the reverence in which the Jews held 
the sacred writings during the Captivity. 

These new letters, as we have said, are called the 
'' square form," but they were called by the early 
Jews"^ '^the Ashuri " character, Ashuri meaning, ac- 
cording to Maimonides, the sacred character, and 
they were probably invented specially for sacred 
writings. 

The old Samaritan letters were not sacred. They 
were used in various modifications by the Canaan- 
ites ; they were used by the Moabites, as we see on 
the Moabite stone, discovered in 1868 at Dibon, east 
of the Dead vSea ; they were also used by the Phoeni- 
cians,f and have been found upon Assyrian weights 

* In the Gamara, tract Sanhedrin, fol. 21, 22, Conder's ** Hand- 
book," p. 174. 

t As seen in the inscription in the Siloam tunnel, '' Echoes of Bible 
History," Bishop Walsh, p. 282. 



CONXLUDING REMARKS. 21/ 

associated with the cuneiform, probably for the con- 
venience of the merchants and tradesmen,^ upon 
the coins of Judaea, and upon one coin of Jehu, king 
of Israel.f It was therefore a common character, 
and it was strictly in keeping with the Jewish senti- 
ment of exclusiveness and separation of themselves 
from all the nations around that they should clothe 
their sacred writings in a letter peculiarly sacred. 
At any rate we have no other origin for this new 
form of lettering, which was never known before the 
Captivity, and which was used after the Captivity 
exclusively for the sacred writings, as we learn from 
the Talmuds of both Jerusalem and Babylonia.:}: 

3. The various sects of Pharisees, with their oral 
tradition and ** unwritten law,*' and the Kabalists, 
with their fanciful and secret interpretations, had 
not arisen at the time of Ezra. The Scriptures were 
gathered and copied mainly for instruction ; and, 
as we learn from Ezra and Nehemiah, the people 
were as earnest as the teachers in their desire that 
the Scriptures should be known and distinctly un- 
derstood, and this object appears to have been sin- 
cerely pursued in the work prosecuted at that time. 
At this period the exclusive demand was for those 
writings which should enlighten the people as to 
duty, both in regard to the divine law and provi- 
dence, and for such writings as should illustrate their 

* Conder's " Handbook to the Bible," London, 1887, p. 173. 
t Recently discovered by Dr. Ginsburg, in British Museum, 
t Bishop Walsh's '' Echoes of Bible History," p. 257. 

10 



2l8 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

history as under the Law and as seen in God's deal- 
ings with their fathers. That the influence of the 
Law and of the teachings of their prophets power- 
fully controlled their actions and lives is evident 
from the fact that they never again fell into idolatry. 
Their truthfulness to their promises and their good 
faith as a people were so apparent that these traits 
frequently led to their appointment to positions of 
trust and privilege among several of the surround- 
ing nations. 

4. It was under these conditions of character and 
motive that the learned scribes of these times made 
the first general collection of Hebrew literature then 
existing. The names of several books^ which were 
extant either at the time of this gathering of the 
Canonical Books or before, are mentioned in the 
Scriptures ; but if they had been considered worthy 
of the Canon they would probably have been pre- 
served by copy or repetition. All that was valuable 
or important to the histories which were preserved 
in the Scriptures was extracted from them and con- 
tained in the Canonical Books as we have them at 
present. 

Judging from certain statements in the genealo- 

* The books are ''Jasher," Josh. 10:13; 2 Sam. 1:18; ''The Acts of 
Solomon," i Kings 11:41; "The Book of Nathan," i Chron. 29:29; 
2Chron.9:29; *' The Prophecy of Ahijah, the Shilonite," and " Iddo " 
(Yeddo), "the Seer, against Jeroboam," 2 Chron. 9:29; "The Book of 
Shemaiah;" "The Book of Jehu," the son of Hanani, 2 Chron. 12:15; 
20:34; " The Sayings of the Seers," 2 Chron. 33:19; and the " Lamen- 
tations over Josiah," which are not the same as those over Jerusalem 
which we have in the Old Testament. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 219 

gies and in the concluding history, the book of 
Chronicles was the last that was written. The book 
of Nehemiah however has some additions, Neh. 
12: 10, II, 22, of genealogies which bring the high- 
priests down to the time of Alexander the Great, as 
Josephus (Vol. v.. Book 11. , ch. 8) shows, who states 
that Jaddna, whose name occurs in the book of Ne- 
hemiah, was high-priest and the last under the Per- 
sian rule, and must therefore have lived in the time 
when Alexander the Great, after the battle of Issus, 
B. C. 334, visited Jerusalem, B. C. 332, during the 
high-priesthood of Jaddua. 

It is narrated that this high-priest was succeeded 
by Onias, his son, and he by '' Simon the Just," who 
was called by the Jews the last of the men of the 
Great Synagogue. It was during the priesthood of 
this Simon that, according to the general opinion of 
both Jewish and Christian writers, the final addition 
was made to the Canon of the Old Testament. Si- 
mon, who was not only high-priest, but a man of 
great learning and of most fervent piety and devo- 
tion to the Law, is said to have added the books of 
Chronicles, of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and the proph- 
ecy of Malachi ; after which, as Josephus writes, there 
was no further change, omission, or addition. The 
Old Testament Canon was closed then for ever. 



220 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

THE NEW TESTAMENT ERA. 

THE LIFE AHD TIMES OF OUR SAYIOUR. 

THE PLANTING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

FROM THE BIRTH OF CHRIST TO HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY. 

1. No other people have had stronger motives 
for cherishing the memories of their past than have 
had the Jews. 

One of the most important sources of Jewish 
pride was found in their genealogical records. 
The history of the return from captivity and of the 
renewed settlement in Palestine, as recorded in the 
books of Ezra and Nehemiah, shows how important 
these records were considered to be. But the most 
important of all the records were those which traced 
any lineage up to David, and there is no reason to 
believe that a true line of descent was ever forgotten. 

Not only the genealogy of the male members, 
but also that of the female members of a family, 
were preserved, as we may learn from Scripture 
accounts and certainly from secular history. A sup- 
posed defect in the genealogy of the mother of John 



BIRTH OF CHRIST TO HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY. 221 

Hyrcanus, a high-priest, B. C. io8, was the cause of 
bloodshed in Jerusalem^ because of the insult offered 
to the high-priest by the bare announcement of such 
a defect, although it was shown that the genealogical 
records certified her descent from a Jewish tribe. 

2. The Virg*ln Mary's genealogy was as 
important as that of Joseph, her reputed husband, 
although her husband's genealogy might have been 
perfect, as in the instance given in the last para- 
graph. In the case of Hyrcanus, his father's origin, 
according to the Jewish law, was without defect ; it 
was the mother's pedigree which was assailed. 

Especially was it important to the priest's office 
that the mother of the candidate for this office 
should be of unquestioned Jewish descent. 

3. It Is for this reason that while the writer of 
the first Gospel (Matthew) opens his history of the 
Messiah with the answer to the important question. 
Whose son is he? the writer of the third Gospel 
(Luke) gives the lineage of his mother. So that, 
whether Christ's pedigree be traced through the line 
of Joseph or of Mary, it is undeniable that he was 
descended from David and from Abraham.f 

NAZARETH AND BETHLEHEM. 

4. These two places, which are brought into 
prominence at this part of the history, were 68 miles 

* Josephus' ''Antiquities," lib. 13, ch. 18. Prideaux, B. II., ch. 5., 

p. 31. 

t Bloomfield's "Notes," Matt. 1:1. 



222 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

apart, Bethlehem being not quite five miles, a little 
west of south, from Jerusalem, and Nazareth 63 
miles north of Jerusalem, if the distances be meas- 
ured in a straight line. 

5. Nazareth is a village of about 5,000 inhabi- 
tants, situated in a plain surrounded almost entirely 
by hills. The place is not mentioned in the Old 
Testament, nor in Josephus, but twenty-nine times 
in the New Testament. The city itself rises in part 
upon the sides of a hill on its northwest side, but 
the little plain at the south end of the city is 1,144 
feet above the sea level, and the top of the hill 
northwest of the city 1,602 feet, or 458 feet higher.^ 
The country slopes from Nazareth southward to the 
northern limit of the plain of Esdraelon, two miles 
distant, where the level is about 300 feet above the 
sea. The Mediterranean is twenty-one miles west 
from Nazareth, and the southernmost shore of the 
Sea of Galilee is seventeen miles due east of the city. 
The soil has always been fertile and the climate 
pleasant. It has one fine spring which supplies the 
entire city, as it must have done in the time of 
Christ. 

6. Betlilehem contains nearly the same popula- 
tion as Nazareth, but its surroundings are the re- 
verse of those at Nazareth, Bethlehem being upon 
an elevation. A church, erected by Constantino, 
A. D. 330, still remains, which furnishes us with the 
style of architecture of the earliest Christian period. 

* Palestine Exploration Fund Map; but Baedeker 1,788 ft. 



BIRTH OF CHRIST TO HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY. 223 

This was the city of David and of his father 
Jesse, and hence always held dear by his descend- 
ants, and to this town Joseph and Mary went from 
Nazareth to be enrolled in accordance with the de- 
cree issued by Caesar Augustus, as stated in Luke 
2:1. The decree w^as only for the enrolment. The 
actual collecting of the taxes did not take place for 
some years afterward, as is recorded in Josephus, 
when the rebellion took place, which is alluded to in 
Acts 5 : 37, against the actual levying of the taxes.* 

THE BIRTH OF OUR SAVIOUR. 

7. During their stay at Betlilehem Jesus 
was born. The crowd was great of the many who 
came to this small town to be registered by the 
officers taking the census, and the accommodations 
for his parents were poor, for the record states '^ there 
was no room for them in the inn " and she ''laid him 
in a manger." It was here that he was visited by 

THE WISE MEN. 

8. These men, usually known as ''the Magi," 
belonged to a class of astrologers whose office it was 

* See the full references and statements in Maclear's '' New Testa- 
ment History," p. 134. Merivale shows that Cyrenius was twice govern- 
or of Syria, and the Greek word Tzpur?] may refer to the first time, or the 
enrolment. See also Bloomfield's " Notes on the New Testament," Luke 
2. " The whole world " is a term frequentU^ used when only all that 
land and no more w^as meant. Thus in 2 Sam. 24:8, in the Hebrew, 
"the whole world" meant, evidently, the whole of that land only. 
So in Acts 11:28; 17:6; the phrase was used in either way as inclu- 
ding only the entire Syria or Judaea to a Jew, or, to a Roman citizen, 
it was the Roman Empire. 



224 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

to study omens, or signs, as drawn from the planets. 
They were descendants of a class which was noted 
for learning and influence in the flourishing ages 
of Babylon and Nineveh, but neither of these cities 
was in existence at this time. As many of the Magi 
had retired eastward to Persia after the fall of Baby- 
lon, it is probable that these came from the Persian 
dominion to Jerusalem, expecting that there they 
should learn something of the new king. 

9. The coming of the Messiah had long been 
the hope of the captive Jews, and as a large number 
of the people, some of influence and wealth, existed 
at this time in the Persian dominions, there can be 
but little doubt that these '' wise men " were roused to 
make the journey they did, and to greet the advent 
of a king who, to them, after seeing the celestial 
sign, was more than simply a '' King of the Jews.'* 

10. Tliese men had a reputation which was 
highly regarded in Jerusalem, and to Herod they 
were not strangers of a common class. Hence to 
him their inquiry carried great importance. His con- 
sultation with the Sandedrin, which was the most 
learned body in Jerusalem at that time, soon showed 
that the Messiah, according to the prophets, was to 
be born in Bethlehem, Micah. 5:2. To this place, 
guided by the supernatural sign, they came, found 
the child, and offered their gifts. 

HEROD AND HIS SUCCESSOR. 

11. The effort of Herod to destroy Jesus in an 



BIRTH OF CHRIST TO HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY. 225 

indiscriminate slaiig-hter of the children of Bethle- 
hem of a certain age, failed of its intention. Joseph, 
having been warned in a dream, took the young 
child and his mother and fled into Egypt before the 
destruction took place. 

13. Egypt at this time was entirely under Ro- 
man control. Many Jews inhabited Alexandria and 
were in affluent circumstances; two of them had 
been chief officers of the armies of Cleopatra. The 
two refugees, with the child, in that land were safely 
beyond the power of Herod, and there they re- 
mained until the death of Herod, which took place 
about a year after their departure from Bethlehem. 

13. Archelaus, who succeeded Herod, was his 
son, but he inherited none of the enterprise and 
mental ability, but only the atrocious cruelty of his 
father ; and the complaints of the Jews occasioned 
his deposition and the confiscation of his property. 
Joseph and Mary, fearing the consequences of com- 
ing within the power of Archelaus, after the death 
of Herod returned to Nazareth in Galilee. 

THE EARLY CHILDHOOD OF JESUS. 

14. One incident only is recorded of Jesus 
from this time until he arrived at manhood. This 
incident was his visit to the Temple at Jerusalem, 
when only twelve years of age. His parents, with 
their friends, had visited the city to attend the 
great feast of the Passover. The celebration of that 
feast being over, they had started upon their return 

Biblical History and Geography. lO 



226 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

in company with crowds of those who were passing 
along the only highway leading northward from the 
city. Jesus had stopped at the Temple and was con- 
versing with the learned doctors, or teachers, of the 
Law. 

15. The peculiar signiflcancy of this visit 
at this time is stated in Mai. 3:1, and it was the first 
time that he had ever referred to the great object of 
his divine mission. This divine mission he an- 
nounced to his mother when she, having sought for 
and found him in the Temple, gently reproved him 
for remaining behind. 

From this time to that when he entered upon his 
public ministry our Saviour remained at Nazareth, 
and as the Scriptural record informs us, he was sub- 
ject to his parents and '' increased in wisdom and stat- 
ure and in favor with God and man," Luke 2:51, 52. 

THE INTERIM. 

16. Events now transpired in the history of 
the Jews which are important to a full understand- 
ing of the future ministry of our Saviour. 

It is evident, in accordance with the ancient 
prophecy by Jacob in his dying hour,"^ that the 
''sceptre had departed from Judah," for ''Shiloh'' 
had come. This Shiloh had been interpreted in all 
their chief commentaries to mean the Messiah.f 
These commentaries were the Targums of which 
we have written, page 189, note. The expression in 

*" Gen. 49:10. t As shown in Prideaux's ''Connection." 



BIRTH OF CHRIST TO HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY. 22/ 

Mai. 3:1, that ''he shall suddenly come to his tem- 
ple/' appears to have been fulfilled when Jesus visited 
the Temple as spoken of already, that is, when at 
the age of twelve he suddenly appeared asking and 
answering questions of the astonished doctors of 
the Law in whose midst he sat, Luke 2 : 47. 

THE CHRISTIAN ERA. 

17. Before we proceed it is necessary that we 
should know that not even at the present time are 
we fully assured as to the exact date of the birth of 
Xhrist. It is generally supposed that Dionysius 
Exiguus, the monk who introduced in A. D. 527 the 
custom of dating events from the birth of Christ, 
mistook the time of that event by exactly four years. 
That is, the birth took place four years before the 
time asserted in that chronology known as Anno 
Domini. But recent discoveries seem to prove that 
the true statement is that the error is one of five 
years, as Prof. Sattler of Munich asserts in an essay 
published by him in 1883. This statement he bases 
upon the discovery of four copper coins which were 
struck under Herod Antipas, seeming to prove that 
Christ was born 749 years after the foundation of 
Rome, and not, as usually accepted, 754. 

But, with this explanation, we shall continue to 
use the common date, while we keep in memory 
that our era is at least four years in error, so that the 
actual birth of Christ took place four or five years 
before A. D. i. 



228 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

THE HERODS. 

18. The name Herod will be found applied to 
no less than five different rulers in New Testament 
times. Their dates of office enable us frequently to 
determine the dates of events referred to in the 
Scriptures. 

The following facts are all that are necessary to 
distinguish the Herods. Herod the Great had five 
wives, but the descendants of only four are referred 
to in the New Testament, as follows : 

Herod the Great, Matt. 2:1. He was made king 
by Julius Caesar, B. C. 37, and died B. C. 4, that 
is, before the common era, but really in the first 
year of Christ. 

He had two sons by Malthace, a Samaritan, 
namely, Herod Antipas and Archelaus. The latter 
succeeded him after some delay, but, although called 
king by the people, was only tetrarch, with the prom- 
ise conditionally made that he should be king. He 
was deposed through complaint of his atrocious 
cruelty, and banished to Vienna, now called Lyons, 
where he died."^ 

The names of the other members of this family 
of Herods may be seen in the following table. 

* This place was then in Gaul, now called France. 



BIRTH OF CHRIST TO HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY. 229 



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230 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

19. The Herods mentioned in the New Testa- 
ment simply by the name '^ Herod" are three, 
(i) Herod the Great. 

(2) Herod Antipas, referred to in Matt 14: 1-12; 
Mark 6 : 14-29 ; Luke 3 : i, 19, 20 ; 8 : 3 ; 9 : 7-9 ; 23 : 7- 
12, 15; Acts 4 : 27 ; called '' the king " in Matt. 14:9; 
Mark 6 : 22, 25-27 ; and ''king Herod " in Mark 6: 14. 
He was son of Herod the Great, as was the Herod 
for whom Herodias left her husband. Therefore 
John the Baptist reproved him for taking for a wife 
Herodias, and she, because of her hatred of the Bap- 
tist for this reproof, moved her daughter Salome to 
ask, as her reward for pleasing Herod (Antipas) by 
her dancing, that he would present her with the 
head of John in a platter. 

(3) Herod Agrippa L, Acts 12:1-23. The sick- 
ness referred to in this passage occurred A. D. 44. 
He was grandson of Herod the Great. 

Others of this family of Herods are mentioned in 
Scripture, but not by the name of Herod, as in the 
case of 

(4) Philip I., of Matt. 14:3; Mark 6:17; Luke 
3:19. In the table he is marked Philip L, but only to 
distinguish him from his brother of the same name, 
Herod Philip. But Philip I. lived in private station 
and is only mentioned as the husband of Herodias, 
as recorded in the passage just given. 

(5) Philip n., of Luke 3:1, is called ''tetrarch of 
Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis.'' It was 
after this Philip that Csesarea Philippi, at the foot 



BIRTH OF CHRIST TO HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY. 23 1 

of Mt. Hermon, received its name, to distinguish it 
from the other Caesarea, on the coast south of Mt. 
Carmel, the latter being called Caesarea Palestina. 
He was also called Herod, but in Scripture only 
Philip. He married Salome the daughter of Hero- 
dias, his niece, the young woman referred to in Matt. 
14:6. He was a son of Herod the Great, as was 
Philip I. 

(6) Agrippa, of Acts 25 and 26, is also called king 
Agrippa in the New Testament, a title given him by 
Claudius, the Roman emperor, A. D. 52. 

30. Of the females of the Herodian family, 
four are mentioned in the New Testament, Hero- 
dias, Salome, Bernice, and Drusilla. Salome is not 
named, but simply called '' the daughter of Herodias.'* 
Herodias is mentioned in Matt. 14 : 3-1 1 and in Mark 
and Luke, where the same incident is recorded. 
Bernice (or Berenice) was niece of Herodias and 
married her uncle, Herod king of Chalcis, who died 
A. D. 48. She then lived with her brother Agrippa 
n. Drusilla was sister of Bernice and was married 
to Azizus, king of Emessa in Syria, now Homs ; but 
at the persuasion of Felix she left her husband and 
married Felix, who was procurator of Judaea, accord^ 
ing to Josephus. He was succeeded by Porcius 
Festus about 6i or 62 A. D., having been accused 
of great cruelty after his departure to Rome. The 
scene described in Acts 23 and 24 occurred just be- 
fore his visit to Rome, and that in Acts 25 and 26 
soon after. Felix had driven out the banditti and 



232 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

impostors from the country, and to this TertuUus al- 
ludes in his address as given in Acts 24 : 2. 

IDUM^A. 

31. Before the Captivity of the Jews to Bab- 
ylon the name Idumsea designated the land east of 
the great valley Arabah which runs south of the 
Dead Sea to the Red Sea. Petra was its capital. 
But during the Captivity the Idumaeans gradually 
extended their settlements to that part of Judaea 
south of Jerusalem, including Hebron. After the 
return from Babylon, the Idumaeans became the 
enemies of the Jews until the time of the Maccabees, 
when they were conquered and required either to 
leave the country or change their religion for that 
of the Jews. They chose the latter alternative un- 
der John Hyrcanus, about B. C. 1 30, and were gov- 
erned by Jewish prefects. 

When, therefore, Antipater the father of Herod 
the Great, and Herod himself, are said to be " Idu- 
maeans," the allusion is to this district south of Ju- 
daea, which was at that time called Idumaea. This is 
the Greek term for Edom. The name is used, Isa. 
34:5, 6, in the former sense, namely, of the country 
east of the Arabah, before the Captivity ; but in Ezek, 
36 : 5 in the sense used after the Captivity, and in 
the latter sense also in Mark 3 : 8. 



THE PUBLIC MINISTRY OF OUR SAVIOUR. 233 



CHAPTER II. 

THE PUBLIC MINISTRY OF OUR. SAVIOUR. 

!• As soon as Jesus arrived at the age 

of about thirty he left Nazareth, and probably pass- 
ing down the valley of the Jordan, went on his way 
to Bethabara, John i : 28. 

BETHABARA. 

2. John, the forerunner of Jesus, was bap- 
tizing at this place, the site of which is not known, 
but from the meaning of the name, '' the house of the 
ferry, or ford/' it must have been on the banks of the 
Jordan. Moreover as John was preaching in Judaea, 
Matt. 3:1, and apparently baptizing in the parts of 
Jordan near at hand, Bethabara must have been not 
far off from the locality now identified with it, 
namely, somewhere east of the present plain of Jer- 
icho, but from John 3 : 26 it is plain that the place 
was ''beyond,'' that is east of Jordan. The name 
Beth-barah of Judg. 7 : 24 may refer to another place 
farther up the Jordan, as the word ''ford " may have 
been then, as it is now, applied to several places. 

THE WILDERNESS. 

3. After the baptism of Jesus by John the 
Baptist at Bethabara he was immediately subjected 



234 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

to several very severe spiritual trials called tempta- 
tions of the devil, Matt. 4:1. These temptations 
were preceded by a period of fasting which contin- 
ued forty days, after which the attacks of the evil 
spirit took place as recorded in Matt. 4, Mark i, and 
Luke 4, but omitted by John. 

4. " The wilderness " was probably the unin- 
habited country west of the northern end of the 
Dead Sea, a region which seems never to have been 
settled ; and the immediate scene of the temptation 
is celebrated in tradition as that rough and hilly 
ridge west of the plain of Jericho called by the 
Latin Church Quarantania. 

DISCIPLES AND APOSTLES. 

5. Soon after his triumphant victory over the 
devil in the temptations our Saviour gained some of 
his disciples and departed from this region to Galilee. 

It is plain from the first chapter of the Gospel ac- 
cording to John that the Baptist was near the re- 
gion of our Saviour's trial by the temptations, and was 
left behind when Jesus and Andrew, Simon Peter 
and Philip, the new disciples, left for Galilee. These 
were added to James and John afterward in Galilee, 
Luke 5:10; and to others, who though now believers, 
and called simply disciples, constituted afterward 
that band of twelve who are distinguished by the 
more important name of apostles, that is, envoys, 
or messengers. 

6. Of these, Andrew was the first to follow 



THE PUBLIC MINISTRY OF OUR SAVIOUR. 235 

Jesus. The others were Simon, called Peter, James 
and his brother John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, 
Matthew, called also Levi, Simon the Zealot, Leb- 
baeus, snrnamed Thaddaeus, called also Judas, or 
Jude, James, called ''the less" to distinguish him 
from the other Tames, called ''the greater," and 
Judas Iscariot, wo betra3^ed Him, and who, when 
he hung himself, was replaced by Matthias, Acts 
1 : 15-26. 

THE GENERAL ORDER OF EVENTS. CANA. 

7. After his baptism in the Jordan and de- 
parture to Galilee, the first event which brought him 
before the great Jewish public took place at Cana of 
Galilee. 

CANA OF GALILEE, JOHN 2 : II. 

Some variance of opinion seems to exist as 
regards the identification of this place. There are 
two places, each of which is pointed out as the Cana 
of the Gospel. One is eight miles due north of Naz- 
areth and the other three and a half miles northeast 
of it. The one is on the north side of an extensive 
plain and is entirely in ruins, while the other is now 
an inhabited village. Early tradition seems to claim 
the former, but the latter is now, and appears always 
to have been, on the direct line to Capernaum and 
the Sea of Galilee from Nazareth, and it may be due 
to this fact that many have supposed it to be the 
Cana of the Gospel. But the names are not exactly 



236 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

alike, the former having been for many centuries 
called Kana of Galilee and the latter only Kenna. 
The ruins show that the former was a much finer 
village than the latter in every way, and had a Ro- 
man road on its south connecting the Mediterranean 
with the Sea of Galilee. It is probable, therefore, 
that it was at this Cana that two of our Lord*s mir- 
acles were performed as stated in John 2:11 and 
4:46-54. 



THE FIRST PASSOVER TO THE SECOND. 237 

CHAPTER III. 

FROM THE FIRST PASSOVER TO THE SECOND. 

1. As is generally supposed, the first miracle, 
at Cana, was performed during the first year of our 
Lord's public ministry. His attendance upon the 
first Passover at Jerusalem brings us to consider the 
state of the city at the time of his visit. 

At the great event of a Passover the city would 
be crowded with visitors, not only from Judaea and 
the surrounding country, but from distant lands. 
At this time the Jews were scattered over almost 
every province under Roman control, and even be- 
yond the Roman Empire. 

Josephus informs us that for these occasions im- 
mense preparations were made, not only to accom- 
modate the people, but also that they might bring 
with them their flocks, and he estimates that at the 
Passover celebrated in the time of Nero the number 
of lambs sacrificed was 256,500."^ 

2. The presence of Jews from so many coun- 
tries would of necessity bring into the city not only 
purchasers, but tradesmen with various moneys re- 
quiring an exchange or brokerage ; and some of the 
Rabbinical writers say that an immense traffic was 
carried on in cattle and other animals for victims 

« "Wars of the Jews," VI., ^9:3. 



238 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

and for food, and much extortion was practised, a 
great part of the profits of which went to the 
priests."^ 

It was on this occasion of his first Passover that 
our Saviour drove out the sheep and oxen and upset 
the tables of the exchangers, as recorded in John 
2:15, using the material with which the animals 
were bound for a whip or scourge. 

3. From the very evident divine power which the 
Saviour exhibited at this Passover, a member of the 
Sanhedrin, Nicodemus, sought an interview with 
him at night, John 3, at which time Christ made the 
announcement of his special mission to this world in 
those remarkable words : '' As Moses lifted up the 
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of 
man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have eternal life," John 3 : 14, 15. 

4. The Passover being ended, Jesus left Jeru- 
salem, but seems to have remained in Judaea near 
the Jordan, perhaps on the plain at the north end of 
the Dead Sea. John was baptizing in the same 
region. It must have been somewhere on these 
plains that Herod Antipas met the Baptist and re- 
ceived the reproof of which we have spoken before. 
This Herodf was the ruler of Galilee and Peraea, and 
was at first married to the daughter of Aretas, king 
of Arabia Petrsea, but forsook her for Herodias, the 

* Bloomfield, John 2:14. note. 

t Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great by Malthace. See the 
Table, p. 229. 



THE FIRST PASSOVER TO THE SECOND. 239 

wife of his half-brother (see preceding table). This 
brought on a war with Aretas on the confines of his 
territory on the south, and it is probable that on his 
way to meet Aretas Herod received the reproof from 
the Baptist and condemned the latter to imprison- 
ment in his castle at Machaerus. 

MACH^RUS AND PER^A. 

5. This castle was seven miles east of the Dead 
Sea, and the ruins remain at a place about 25 miles 
south of the north end of the sea. It is 3,800 feet 
above its level and 2,507 feet above the Mediter- 
ranean. Josephus says that John the Baptist was 
imprisoned here, and here he must have been be- 
headed. The region of Peraea extended from this 
place to Pella, near the Jordan, about 60 miles north, 
and Herod Antipas was at that time ruler of all Gal- 
ilee and Peraea, which included the castle Machaerus. 

ENON AND SALIM. 

6. During the Saviour's stay in Judaea, 

after the Passover just spoken of, it appears that he 
remained for a time near the Jordan while his disci- 
ples baptized. The two preachers were therefore 
not far distant from each other, and the disciples of 
John, evidently with a spirit of rivalry, communica- 
ted the fact that greater crowds attended the minis- 
try of Jesus. 

This brought out the testimony of John to the 
greater glory and future progress of the gospel of 



240 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

Jesus. John was at this time at '' Enon near Salim," 
and the sites of these two places have not yet been 
settled. 

Enon is the Greek form of the Aramaic word for 
'' springs," and Salim is the word for '' peace," and 
both of these words are frequently found in varying 
forms in several places. 

It has been thought that the little village now 
called Salim, not far east of Shechem, was the site 
of the Scripture Salim, and that Enon was to be iden- 
tified with a little ruin called Ainun, nearly eight 
miles northeast. But apart from the fact that these 
places are not near each other, they are entirely too 
near the very heart of the Samaritan district, Salim 
being only four miles east of Shechem. 

It is not at all probable that John ever left Judsea, 
and it is exceedingly improbable that he would have 
gone into the Samaritan region to baptize. There 
is a little valley three or four miles northeast of 
Jerusalem which yet bears a name somewhat similar 
to Salim, where there are waters described by Dr. 
Barclay ; but neither of these Biblical places has 
yet been satisfactorily identified. 

7. Our Saviour now left Judaea and passed 
to Galilee upon the shortest road, w^hich leads 
through Samaria, John 4:3. The season seems to 
have been in December, John 4: 35, as it was ''four 
months to harvest," which began in April. On the 
way he sat down upon the well called Jacob's, and 
the scene described in John 4 took place. 



THE FIRST PASSOVER TO THE SECOND. 24I 

JACOB'S WELL, SYCHAR, John 4. 

8. Jacob's well has always been identified with 
that well cut in the solid rock which is about a mile 
and a half east by south from Shechem. It formerly 
had a small chapel built over it, in the fourth century, 
and was about 80 feet in depth when examined by 
the writer, but the original depth must have been 
greater, for there are many stones at the bottom. It 
is not now a well of constant supply, but varies with 
the season, and was dry when we examined it. Hence 
perhaps the remark of our Saviour, John 4:10, in 
which he alludes to ''living water.'' 

Sychar was probably at the little village now 
called Askar, about one-half of a mile northeast from 
the well. Some have supposed that Sychar and 
Shechem were the same ; but it is not probable that 
the woman spoken of in the context would have 
walked a mile and a half from Shechem, where there 
was an abundance of water, to draw water from this 
deep well. The probabilities are that Askar was the 
site of Sychar^ where there are caves and remains 
of ancient tombs. 

MATT. 4: 12-17; MARK I : I4, 15 ; LUKE 4. 

9. Jesus passed through Samaria to Galilee, 
stopping for a short time in Nazareth, Matt. 13:53- 
58 ; and then going to Capernaum,^ announced as he 
went the great object of his mission, and especially 
that the appointed time had arrived which had been 

Biblir^al History and Geo;;raphy. j J 



242 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

foretold for the appearance of the Messiah as spoken 
of in the prophets, Mark i : 14, 15. That he himself 
was this Messiah he distinctly asserted at Jacob's 
well to the Samaritan woman, John 4 : 26. 

10, Passing* on from Nazareth he again vis- 
ited Cana, where the miracle of the healing of the 
nobleman's son was performed, John 4 : 46-54. He 
then went down to Capernaum, which hereafter 
seems to have been adopted as his favorite place of 
abode. 

CAPERNAUM. 

11. This place has not yet been certainly iden- 
tified. Some have supposed that it was on the west 
side of the Sea of Galilee at a place called Khan Min- 
yeh, which is on the plain of Gennesaret, five miles 
southwest of the mouth of the Upper Jordan ; others 
have located it at a ruin farther north of this sea, 
called Tell Hum. To some this name seems to be 
all that remains of the ancient name Capernaum, 
which, as they think, means the village (caper) of 
Nahum (Naum). 

At Capernaum many of our Saviour's miracles 
were performed, and the place is referred to sixteen 
times by name. 

13. A miracle performed here at this time in the 
history confirmed the faith of Andrew, Peter, James, 
and John, who were fishing in the waters of the sea 
not far off from the village, Luke 5 : i-ii. 

Soon after this the restoring of the demoniac to 
his senses in the synagogue took place, Luke 4:33, 



THE FIRST PASSOVER TO THE SECOND. 243 

and immediately after this the healing of Peter's 
wife's mother, as recorded in the same chapter. 
Many other miracles were performed the same even- 
ing. 

13. Jesus then beg^an to travel throughout 
Galilee, preaching and healing. One miracle on this 
journey is recorded, that of healing a leper, as narra- 
ted in Matt. 8:2; Mark i 140 ; Luke 5:12. On his 
return to Capernaum he heals a paralytic. Matt. 9:2; 
Mark 2:1-12; Luke 5:18. 

In the narrative of this last-mentioned miracle we 
have an illustration of the use of double names among 
the Jews, for Matthew, 9 : 9, calls himself Matthew, 
whereas the other evangelists in their accounts called 
him Levi,^ and moreover Matthew adopts the usual 
method of Greek historians in speaking of themselves 
in the third person to avoid egotism. Compare Matt. 
9:10; Mark 2:15; Luke 5 : 29. 

* Bloomfield, Notes in Matt. 9:9. 



244 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SECOND PASSOVER AND THE TRANSACTIONS UN- 
TIL THE THIRD PASSOVER. TIME ONE YEAR. 

THE POOL OF BETHESDA, John 5:2. 

1. Very recent discoveries have led to the 
belief that this pool was not at the so-called Birket 
Israel on the left hand of the entrance through the 
gate of St. Stephen — the eastern gate of Jerusalem — 
but on the right hand of the same entrance at the 
French church of St. Anne. It is about i6o feet on 
the right of the gate as you enter into the city. 
Here there has recently (1888) been discovered a 
tank in the rock under the church, reached by a 
flight of 24 steps, and more recently a twin pool by 
its side, which is supposed to identify the place, ac- 
cording to early writers. The remains of the five 
porches are still to be seen,^ 

2. In his attendance upon the second Passover 
Jesus performed the miracle of healing* at the 
crowded pool of Bethesda, but left with the man 
whom he had restored no name or clew whereby 
he should know him. Soon after however, meeting 
the man in the Temple, Jesus warned him as to his 
future life ; and thus the healed man was informed, 
and he reported to those who inquired of him the 

* Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration. 



THE SECOND PASSOVER TO THE THH^D. 245 

name of his benefactor. This act of healing was 
performed on the Sabbath day, and the consequent 
command of Jesus, ''Take up thy bed and walk," 
was made the occasion of bitter resentment on the 
part of the Jews. This gave the opportunity to our 
Lord for uttering one of the most distinct avowals of 
his equality with God as his Father, and the asser- 
tion that their own Jewish Scriptures testified of 
him. He then departed for Galilee. 

HISTORICAL OCCURRENCES OF THIS YEAR IN THE 
ORDER OF TIME, WITH THE HARMONY OF REFER- 
ENCES AND LOCALITIES. 

3. On the way to Galilee. The disciples 
pluck ears of corn on the Sabbath, Matt. 12:1; Mark 
2:23; Luke 6. 

In Galilee. The healing of the withered hand 
on the Sabbath, Matt. 12:9; Mark 3:1; Luke 6 : 6. 

Immediately after the last mentioned miracle he 
retired to the Sea of Galilee, and the greatness of the 
interest manifested in him can be understood by the 
extent of country from which the crowds came, as 
indicated in Mark 3 : 7, 8, for it appears that the peo- 
ple came not only from Galilee, but ^' from Judaea 
and from Jerusalem and Idumsea and from the east 
of Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon." 

4. Near Gennesaret. Jesus chooses the twelve 
apostles. Matt. 10: i ; Mark 3 : 13 ; alluded to again, 
Mark 6 : 7. This he did after a night spent in prayer 
on a mountain, Luke 6:12, 13. This transaction 



246 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

seems to have taken place on some one of the hills 
south of the plain of Gennesaret, while on his way 
to Capernaum. 

5. Near Gennesaret. The Sermon on the 
Mount and a probable repetition of a part on the 
plain of Gennesaret, as narrated in Luke 6:17; Matt. 
5. In this and the following chapters St. Matthew 
has gathered a large collection of the precepts and 
teachings of Jesus, which occurred at this time, but 
which are only in part narrated in Luke. 

6. Same place. The Lord's Prayer as narra- 
ted in Matthew, and probably repeated upon another 
occasion, as seen in Luke 11 : i. 

7. Capernaum. The centurion's servant healed, 
Matt. 8:5 ; Luke 7: i. 

Nain. The widow's son raised from the bier 
upon which he was carried, Luke 7:11. 

8. This place was 59 miles north of Jerusalem 
and 20 miles southwest of the plain of Gennesaret. 
En-dor is two miles northeast of it on the same north- 
ern flank of the ridge. The scenery is very beauti- 
ful towards the north and west, and suggests the 
fitness of the name, which means *' beauty.'' Imme- 
diately south, one mile distant, the mountain range 
rises to the height of 1,690 feet above the Mediterra- 
nean, and on the northern flank of this range the 
village is built, itself at the height of 744 feet. It 
overlooks the great plain of Esdraelon. The only 
reference to this place is found in Luke 7:11-17. 

9. In Galilee. John the Baptist while in prison 



THE SECOND PASSOVER TO THE THH^D. 247 

sends messengers to Jesus, Matt. 11:2; Luke 7:19. 
Jesus had now performed a large part of his life's 
work, and in some degree he now reviews it and 
in several places sums up the amount done. He 
reviews also the instances in which he had been 
unsuccessful in persuading some to believe upon his 
mission and accept him as the true Messiah. In this 
review he mentions Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Caper- 
naum, and compares their advantages with those 
enjoyed by Tyre and Sidon. 

CHORAZIN AND BETHSAIDA, Matt. II :2i ; Luke lo: 13. 

10. Tlie site of the former of these places is 
unknown. Excepting the similarity of the names, 
Kerazeh and Chorazin, we have nothing to show 
that the ruin called by the former name is identical 
with the place known in Scripture by the latter 
name. The ruin called Kerazeh is two and a half 
miles from the northern shore of the lake and about 
900 feet higher than its surface. The ruins of a sup- 
posed synagogue are to be found there, and near 
them is a spring. 

Against this supposed site of Chorazin it is said 
that Jerome^ speaks of it as one of the cities which 
were upon the shores of the lake. In reply it is said 
the traveller Willibald, going northward in the be- 
ginning of the eighth century, says that he went 
from Tiberias by Magdala, now called Mejdel, to 
Capernaum, thence to Bethsaida, thence to Chorazin, 

* Died A. D. 420. 



248 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

and thence to the fountains of the Jordan,^ so that 
the order of localities thus stated makes Chorazin 
probably off the lake.f ' Kerazeh appears to answer 
to all that the Scripture claims for Chorazin both 
in name and locality. 

11. As to Betlisaida, there are supposed to have 
been two of this name, which means '' fish-house ;" 
the one is just east of the Jordan, about a mile above 
the place where it empties into the northern end of 
the lake. This was the eastern Bethsaida, and at 
about this period of our Saviour's life Herod Philip, 
the tetrarch, had greatly enlarged and beautified the 
place and given it the name ''Julias" in honor of 
the daughter of Augustus ; and here he was buried, 
A. D. 33, in a costly tomb which he had erected for 
himself. 

It was near this Bethsaida that Jesus fed the five 
thousand with the five loaves and two fishes, and 
after dismissing the crowd retired into one of the 
neighboring hills to pray.:]: 

13. Place uncertain, probably Capernaum. 
At the ^ house of Simon the Pharisee, while "at 
meat,'' Christ's feet are anointed by a woman who is 
called '' a sinner," Luke 7 : 36. Another anointing by 
a woman took place at a much later period, and per- 
haps a third just before his betrayal, John 11:2; 
12:2. Anointing was very common in those days. 

* Murray's " Handbook," 1875, p. 408. 

t Baedeker's " Palestine and Syria," p. 374. 

J Merrill, ''Galilee in the time of Christ," p. 48. 



THE SECOND PASSOVER TO THE THIRD. 249 

The so-called alabaster-box was not necessarily of any 
one material, much less of the material known now 
as alabaster. The same Greek term is used by He- 
rodotus" in exactly the same form used in Matt. 26 : 7 ; 
Mark 14:3; Luke 7:37, and the vessel might have 
been of marble, of glass, or metal.f Theocritus:}: 
writes of '' golden alabasters filled with Syrian oint- 
ments." 

It was customary to anoint the head and also the 
feet of a guest on certain occasions, and the alabas- 
tron was common among persons of means. There 
is therefore no sufficient reason to suppose that this 
anointing was so rare an instance that the several 
accounts in the Gospels refer to only one event. The 
other accounts besides that referred to at the begin- 
ning of this section are found in Matt. 26 : 6 ; Mark 
14:3, which appear to describe one and the same 
occasion, shortly before his betrayal, and John 11:2; 
12:2, which description is somewhat similar to that 
of the preceding Gospels. 

13. Galilee. Our Saviour makes visits with the 
twelve through Galilee the second time. Luke 8:1. 
This seems to have been in Galilee, judging from the 
context as compared with Matt. 12:46; Mark 3:31, 
and following verses in the next chapter. He seems 
to have visited extensively, as the Greek phrase, 
*^ city by city and village by village," signifies. 

^ Herodotus, 3:20, and Athen,, p. 268. 
t Bloomfield, '' Notes," Matt. 26:7. 

t Idyll 15, line 114; Parkhurst, Lex., 5 ; Bloomfield, Luke 8:1. 

II* 



250 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

14. The following incidents are supposed to have 
taken place about this time and in the following 
order, all in Galilee : 

(i.) The healing of the demoniac, Matt. 12 : 22. A 
somewhat similar case occurred before, Matt. 9 : 32. 
In this passage the utterances of our Saviour define 
the solemnity of the office of the Holy Spirit in a 
most fearful sense, and again in Mark 3 : 28, 29. This 
healing is repeated, Luke 11:14. 

(2.) The scribes and Pharisees seek from him a 
sign to prove his authority. Matt. 12:38; repeated 
with additional remarks. Matt. 15:1; also Mark 
8:11; and more urgently in John 6:31. It was in 
reply to one of these requests that Jesus announced 
that the sign superior to all others should take place 
after his death, for that after death he should rise 
again on the third day. Matt. 1 2 : 40, drawing from 
the history of Jonah an illustration of his own burial 
for three days only. 

(3.) The declaration that his true disciples were his 
nearest relatives. Matt. 12 : 46 ; Mark 3:31; Luke 8:19. 

(4.) Jesus takes dinner with a Pharisee and de- 
nounces the sect, Luke 11 : 37. 

(5.) Jesus instructs a multitude when he declares 
that whosoever shall confess him before men shall 
be confessed by him before the angels of God, Luke 
12 : I. 

15. By the lake, (i.) The parable of the sower. 
Matt. 13:3; Mark 4:2; Luke 8 : 4. 

(2.) The parable of the tares, Matt. 13 : 24. 



THE SECOND PASSOVER TO THE THIRD. 25 1 

(3.) Sea of Galilee. Jesus calms the tempest, 
Matt. 8 : 24-27 ; Mark 4: 37-41 ; Luke 8 : 22-25. 

(4.) He heals the demoniacs of the country of the 
Gergesenes, stilling the tempest by a word as he 
crosses, Matt. 8:23; Mark 5:1; Luke 8 : 26. 

GADARA, GERGESA. 

16. The location of Gadara (pronounced Gad'- 
ara) was at the present Um Keis, where the ruins are 
extensive and four fine springs exist. Um Keis is 
seven miles southeast of the Sea of Galilee, upon the 
level surface of a steep hill. It is thought that the 
term Gadarenes referred to the general region of 
which Gadara was the capital, and Gergesenes to the 
town of Gergesa, on the lake, where the miracle oc- 
curred, and which belonged to the district of the 
Gadarenes. 

Gadara is first mentioned in secular history when 
captured by Antiochus the Great, B. C. 218. It was 
taken by the Jews twenty years afterwards, but de- 
stroyed during their civil wars, and rebuilt by Pom- 
pey to please his freedman, who was a Gadarene. 
When the proconsul of Syria, Gabinius, changed the 
constitution of Judaea, dividing it into five districts 
having governing councils, Gadara was made the seat 
of one of these councils, and became a chief city or 
capital of the country around. 

It is probable that Gergesa is properly identified 
in the ruin Kersa on the east shore of the Lake of 
Gennesaret, almost equi-distant from the north and 



252 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

the south ends. It was once surrounded by a wall, 
the ruins of which still remain. Just south of it the 
hills come down very precipitously into the water, as 
they do in no other place on the shore, Mark 5:1; 
Luke 8 : 26 ; Matt. 8 : 28. 

17. Capernaum. The feast given to our Lord 
by Levi, who is also called Matthew, takes place at 
this time, Matt. 9:10; Mark 2:15; Luke 5 : 29. 

The raising of Jairus' daughter, and the healing 
of the woman who touched the hem of his garment. 
Matt. 9 : 20 ; Mark 5:25; Luke 8 : 43. 

Two blind men and a dumb man healed, Matt. 

9 • 27- 

18. Nazareth. Christ appears here, but is re- 
jected the second time. Matt. 13 : 54 ; Mark 6:1. The 
first time was soon after his baptism, Luke 4:16. 

G-alilee. Jesus makes with his disciples a third 
circuit through Galilee, Matt. 9:35; Mark 6 : 6. The 
passage in Luke 13 : 22 gives quite another circuit on 
his final journey towards Jerusalem, which took place 
probably the following year. 

Jesus sends out the twelve, two by two. Matt. 10 : i, 
5 ; Mark 6:7; Luke 9 : i. 

Herod (Antipas), who had slain John the Baptist, 
hears of Jesus, and supposes that John has risen. 
Matt. 14:1; Mark 6:14; Luke 9 : 7. 

Northeast coast of the lake. The five thou- 
sand are fed. Jesus afterwards walks upon the wa- 
ter, Matt. 14:15-33; Mark 6:35-51; Luke 9:12-17 
(Luke omits the walking on the water) ; John 6 : 5-21. 



THE THIRD PASSOVER. 253 



CHAPTER V, 

THE THIRD PASSOVER. 

1. Many incidental circumstances have led 
commentators to suppose that the third Passover 
transpired about this time. The following incidents 
are therefore attributed to him after the third Pass- 
over. We therefore, in accordance with the above 
supposition, recount the events for the next six 
months to the Feast of Tabernacles. The chief rea- 
son for asserting the third Passover at this time is, 
that according to John 6 : 4, the Passover ^^ was nigh " 
at the time of the feeding of the five thousand. 

2. Capernaum. Jesus replies to the Pharisees 
who object to eating with unwashed hands, Matt. 
15:2; Mark 7 : i, in which the washing was not for 
cleanliness but religious ceremony. 

3. Region of Tyre and Sldon. The Syro- 
phoenician woman's daughter healed, Matt. 15:21; 
Mark 7 : 24. 

TYRE AND SIDON. 

These were Phoenician towns, twenty-five miles 
distant from each other, and upon the Mediterranean 
seacoast. They are mentioned in history long before 
the building of Jerusalem. The first is mentioned 
in Scripture in Josh. 19 : 29 for the first time, while 
Sidon is spoken of by name many years before, in 



254 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

Gen. ID : 19, as being a prominent Canaanitish city, 
B. C. 2350. 

In the time of our Saviour they were both inhab- 
ited places, and Tyre was a city of great importance. 
At present they are considerable towns of from 5,000 
(Tyre) to 15,000 (Sidon) inhabitants. Tyre is almost 
due west from Mt. Hermon. 

Decapolis. The deaf and dumb healed, Mark 
7:32. It is probable that this case is to be distin- 
guished from those mentioned in Matt. 9 : 32 ; 12 : 22, 
which may have happened at previous times, as the 
surrounding circumstances suggest. 

DECAPOLIS. 

4. This region contained ten principal cities, as 
the name signifies. Pliny gives the names Scyth- 
opolis (or old Beth-shean), Philadelphia, Raphana, 
Gadara, Hippos, Dios, Pella, Gerasa, Canatha, and 
Damascus as constituting the ten. Josephus says 
Otopos instead of Canatha. The region was inhab- 
ited by many foreigners, and hence might have con- 
tained more swine than any truly Jewish region. 
Hence the mention of large numbers of swine in the 
healing of the demoniac, for among the strictly Jew- 
ish districts the keeping of swine would not have 
been permitted. This district may be described gen- 
erally as east of the Lake of Gennesaret and of that 
part of Jordan which is south of the lake as far as 
Scythopolis or Beth-shean, fifteen miles south of the 
lake and four miles west of the Jordan. The cities 



THE THIRD PASSOVER. 255 

of the list have not all been identified. Scythopolis, 
Philadelphia, Gadara, Damascus, and possibly Hip- 
pos and Pella, are known, but the district of Decapo- 
lis has not yet been satisfactorily defined. 

5. Scythopolis we have already described, page 
132. Philadelphia was the name given to the pres- 
ent Ammon by Ptolemy Philadelphus. It is a ruin 
on the high tableland twenty -three miles east of the 
Jordan and nearly thirty miles northeast of the Dead 
Sea. It is the old Rabbath-Ammon, the capital of 
the Ammonites in the time of Moses, Deut. 3:11. Its 
ruins are very extensive. 

6. Damascus is yet an important city fifty-five 
miles east of the Mediterranean coast, situated on an 
extensive plain bounded on the north by spurs of 
the Anti-Lebanon range. 

Excavations seem to show that the greater part 
of Damascus is built upon ancient ruins of the for- 
mer city. Its population at present (1890) is supposed 
to be about 125,000. Hippos, another city of the 
Decapolis, is supposed to have been upon the south 
shore of the Sea of Galilee ; and Pella, whither many 
Christians fled just before the destruction of Jeru- 
salem, is about three miles east of the Jordan, up in 
the hills eighteen miles south of the Sea of Galilee. 

Decapolis region. The four thousand are fed 
near the lake, Matt. 15 : 32 ; Mark 8:1. 

DALMANUTHA. MAGDALA. 

7. Dalmanutlia is the place which Jesus ap- 



256 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

proached on his return from the east of the lake to 
the west, according to Mark 8:10, after feeding the 
four thousand. Matthew states that he came into 
the coasts of Magdala. They must have been in the 
same vicinity. Magdala is now called Mejdel, the vil- 
lage still being inhabited. It is immediately upon 
the shore, and a little more than three miles north 
of Tiberias. But between Mejdel and Tiberias there 
is a spring and a good landing place with some re- 
mains. The place is called Ain el-Fuliyeh, and may 
have had the above name of Dalmanutha, as the soil 
is richer than that around and shows evidences of a 
former settlement. The place seems to have as- 
sumed in recent times the name Ain Barideh, ''the 
cold spring.'' 

The boat in crossing evidently landed between 
these two villages of Dalmanutha and Mejdel. 

8. On the shore. The Pharisees again demand 
a ^'sign," or proof, of his authority. Matt. 16:1; 
Mark 8:11. The former time is recorded in Matt. 
12:38. 

Crossing the lake. He warns his disciples of 
the leaven against the Pharisees. Matt. 16:6; Mark 
8:15; Luke 12:1 may refer to this time or may have 
been on another occasion. 

Bethsaida (Julias). The blind man healed, 
Mark 8 : 22. 

Near Csesarea-Philippi. Jesus foretells his 
death. The transfiguration takes place. He heals 
immediately afterward a demoniac whom his disci- 



THE THIRD PASSOVER. 257 

pies could not heal, Matt. 16 : 21 ; 17 : 14; Mark 8:31; 
9:17; Luke 9: 38. 

9. Passing tlirough Galilee to Capernaum. 

He foretells his death and resurrection the second 
time, Matt. 17 : 22 ; Mark 9:31; Luke 9 :44. 

Capernaum. The tribute money taken from 
the fish. Matt. 17: 24. 

The seventy are sent out after they had received 
the lesson upon humility, Matt. 18:1; Mark 9. 

JESUS GOES UP TO THE FEAST OF THE TABERNACLES. 

10. The nature of this feast is described in 
Lev. 23 : 33. It was celebrated on the fifteenth day 
after the new moon in October, and was the great 
'' harvest home " of the Jews. All dwelt in booths, 
called ^Habernacles," for eight days, of which the 
last day was ''the great day of the feast." The later 
Jews added the pouring of water mingled with wine 
upon the morning sacrifices of each day, amid 
sounding of trumpets and horns and the singing of 
a passage from Isa. 12:3. This may have suggested 
the announcement made by our Saviour as given in 
John 7 : 37, 38. 

THE LINE OF TRAVEL. 

11. Jesus leaves Capernaum, passes through 
Galilee by Nazareth, taking the shortest route direct 
to Jerusalem through Samaria, probably by Jacob's 
well, which was situated on the main road, the same 
to-day as then. This was in October. His brethren 

Biblical History and Geography. 



258 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

had gone on before, John 7:10, and he delayed till 
the crowd had decreased and then started. Hence 
he did not appear till the third or fourth day of the 
feast, and then he began to teach. 

On his way, In Samaria. The ten lepers are 
cleansed, Lnke 17: 12. 

He rebukes James and John for wishing to call 
down fire upon the Samaritans, Luke 9 : 54. 

13. Jerusalem. Jesus teaches in the Temple, 
John 7: 14. 

The woman taken in adultery, John 8:3. 

They attempt to stone him for saying, '' Before 
Abraham was, I am/' John 8 : 58. 

A lawyer instructed. Parable of the Good Samar- 
itan, Luke 10: 25. 

They threaten to stone him for saying, '' I and my 
Father are one," John 10: 31. 

Bethany. Jesus visits the house of Martha and 
Mary, Luke 10: 38. 

Near Jerusalem. He teaches his disciples to 
pray, Luke 11 : i. 

Jerusalem. The man born blind is healed on 
the Sabbath, John 9:1. 

Bethany. He goes to '' beyond Jordan,'* where 
John at first baptized, and there hearing of the sick- 
ness of Lazarus, goes to Bethany and raises him, 
John II : I. 

Jerusalem. Caiaphas, the high-priest, suggests 
the death of Jesus, who retires to Ephraim, John 
11:47, 54. 



THE THIRD PASSOVER. 259 



EPHRAIM, JOHN 1 1 : 54. 



13. The site of this town has not certainly 
been identified, but Dr. Robinson has given good 
reasons for supposing that it was situated at a village 
now called Taiyibch, twelve miles a little east of 
north from Jerusalem. It is off the present main 
road of travel, to the east, and in the midst of a very 
rough and untravelled country, but there are the re- 
mains of a good Roman road running down from this 
place to the valley of the Jordan, and about a mile 
and a half below the village there are two Roman 
mile-posts still standing on that old road. It is prob- 
able that here our Saviour retired from the danger 
that seemed to threaten him in Jerusalem. After 
leaving Ephraim he seems to have taken the main 
road down to the plain of Jordan and crossed to the 
other side, called Peraea. 

14. Persea. Great numbers follow Christ here, 
and the following is a brief history of what trans- 
pired in that region : 

He heals the infirm woman on the Sabbath, Luke 
13: 10. 

He is warned against Herod, Luke 13:31. 

He dines with a chief Pharisee on the Sabbath, 
Luke 14: I. 

The parables of the lost sheep and of the prod- 
igal son, Luke 15 : 11-32. 

The parables of the unjust steward and of the 
rich man and Lazarus, Luke 16. 



26o BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPLIY. 

The warnings that Christ's coming will be sud- 
den, Luke 17:20. 

The parables of the importunate widow, Luke. 
18:1, and Pharisee and publican, Luke 18 : 10. 

He gives precepts respecting divorce, Matt. 19:3. 

He blesses little children. Matt. 19:13; Mark 
10: 13 ; Luke 18 : 15. 

The visit of the rich young man. Matt. 19:16; 
Mark 10 : 17 ; Luke 18 : 18. 

Parable of the laborers in the vineyard. Matt. 
20: I. 

On the way tip to Jerusalem. Jesus for the 
third time foretells his crucifixion and resurrection, 
but his disciples do not understand him, Matt. 20:17; 
Mark 10: 32 ; Luke 18 : 31. 

15. Near the Jordan. James and John make 
their ambitious request through their mother. Matt. 
20:20; Mark 10: 35. 

West of Jericlio. He heals two blind men, 
Matt. 20:30; Mark 10:46; Luke 18:35. 

Visits Zacchseus, Luke 19:1-10. 

Nearer to Jerusalem. Parable of the ten 
pounds, Matt. 25 : 14-30; Luke 19 : 11-27. 

Bethany. The supper given by Simon the 
leper. Matt. 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; John 12:1-11; 
from John it seems that this feast took place six days 
before the Passover, and on the next day was the 
triumphal entry into Jerusalem. 

Just east of Bethany. The sending for the 
ass and colt, followed by the triumphal entry of our 



THE THIRD PASSOVER. 261 

Saviour into Jerusalem. Matt. 21:17. Mark 1 1 : i-i i 
and -Luke 19 : 29-40 speak only of the colt. 

16. Descending" the Mount of Olives. 

Christ weeps over Jerusalem, Luke 19 : 41-44. 

Jerusalem. He makes a triumphal entry into 
Jerusalem and visits the Temple, Matt. 21 : 12-17. 
This passage includes the statement of the overturn- 
ing the money-changers' tables on the first day. 
Mark 11 : 12 states that this act was performed on the 
day following. As he performed the same act at his 
first Passover, two years before, John 2: 13-17, he 
may have done the same thing twice, on two suc- 
cessive days. Also read Luke 19 : 45- 

Bethany. He retires at evening to Bethany, 
Matt. 21:17; Mark 1 1 : 1 1. 

BETHANY AND BETHPHAGE. 

17. Bethany was a little over a mile east of the 
lower part of the city, about a mile and a half south- 
east from St. Stephen's gate, if raeasured along the 
road. 

Bethphage has not been certainly identified, but 
it was probably at a place one half-mile south of the 
Church of the Ascension, which is on the top of the 
Mount of Olives. It was on the way from Bethany 
to Jerusalem, where the road from Bethany winds 
around the south of the highest part of the Mount 
of Olives. This was the supposition of Dr. Barclay, 
and seems probable to the writer, who visited the 
place. 



262 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

On the way from Bethany to Jerusalem, 

The fig-tree cursed, Matt. 21 : 19; Mark 11 : 12. 

18. Jerusalem. Christ's authority demanded, 
Matt. 21 : 23 ; Mark 1 1 : 27 ; Luke 20: i. 

Parable of the two sons, Matt. 21 : 28. 

Parable of the wicked husbandmen. Matt. 21 : 33- 
41 ; Mark 12:1; Luke 20 : 9. 

Of the marriage of the king's son. Matt. 22 : 2. 

The cunning of the Pharisees regarding tribute 
to Csesar, Matt. 22 : 15 ; Mark 12 : 13 ; Luke 20: 21. 

The artful question of the Sadducees answered 
in respect to the resurrection. Matt. 22 : 23 ; Mark 
12 : 18 ; Luke 20: 2"]. 

A lawyer's question. Which is the greatest com- 
mandment? Matt. 22 : 35 ; Mark 12 : 28. 

Jesus' question as to why David calls the son 
Lord, Matt. 22 : 42 ; Mark 12:35 ; Luke 20 : 41. 

He warns them against the scribes and Pharisees, 
Matt. 23 : 2-36 ; Mark 12 : 38-40 ; Luke 20 : 46, 47. 

The widow's two mites, Mark 12 141 ; Luke 21 : i. 

Some Greeks desire to see Jesus, John 12 : 20. 

19. Mount of Olives. Warnings and foretell- 
ing of the destruction of Jerusalem, Matt. 24 : 3-5 1 ; 
Mark 13 : 3-37 ; Luke 21 : 7-36. 

The ten virgins and the parable of the five tal- 
ents. Matt. 25 : 1-30. 

A distinct announcement that he shall come in 
glory with the angels, Matt. 25:31-46; such an an- 
nouncement was made before his transfiguration, 
but only in brief allusion, see Mark 8 : 38. 



THE THIRD PASSOVER. 263 

Jeriisaleni. The chief priests, scribes, and 
elders of the people take counsel to destroy Jesus, 
Matt. 26 : 3 ; Mark 14:1,2; Luke 22 : 2. 

Jesus appoints a place where he shall eat the 
passover, Matt. 26 : 17 ; Mark 14 : 12 : Luke 22 : 7. 

The Lord's Supper instituted at the close of 
the eating of the passover. Matt. 26 : 26-29 ; Mark 
14:22-26; Luke 22:19,20. From the last quota- 
tion, with its context both before and after, it is 
plain that the institution followed the passover ; read 
also from John 13:2. 

Jesus washes his disciples' feet. This includes 
Judas' feet, as seen in the record by John, 13 :4-30. 

Jesus, after the departure of Judas, gives a re- 
markable series of comforting instructions and ex- 
hortations to the apostles. 

30. Getlisemane. He retires to Gethsemane 
and prays while his disciples sleep. Matt. 26 : 36 ; 
Mark 14: 32 ; Luke 22 : 39. 

Betrayed by Judas, he is led away to Annas, who 
sends him bound to the high-priest Caiaphas, who 
was with the Sanhedrin as they were assembled, ex- 
pecting Jesus at that hour. Matt. 26 : 47 ; Mark 14 : 43 ; 
Luke 22 : 47. 

ANNAS, CAIAPHAS, PILATE. 

31. Annas had been high-priest, but had been 
deposed by the procurator of Judaea ; Caiaphas, 
who was made high-priest, was his son-in-law.^ 

Annas was a man of great influence and was 

* Josephus, "Antiquities," XVH., 2:2. 



264 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

probably at this time president of the Sanhedrin.* 
Hence as he had been made a deputy by the previ- 
ous procurator and discharged some of the functions 
of the office, he was called a high-priest. 

33. Pilate succeeded to the office of procurator 
A. D. 26, and gave to the Jewish priests the manage- 
ment of their own affairs, in order to conciliate them, 
but at times he was exceedingly cruel and exacting.f 
As an instance, when he desired to bring water into 
Jerusalem from a distance of twenty-five miles, to 
aid in the enterprise he seized upon the money laid 
up in the Temple for sacred purposes. This act so 
enraged the Jews that they assembled by thousands 
at the palace gates demanding the restoration of the 
money. Pilate ordered his soldiers to disperse them, 
and they with their short daggers charged the 
crowds into the very precincts of the Temple, slay- 
ing great numbers even upon the altars of their sac- 
rifices.ij: 

23. Jerusalem. The Sanhedrin lead Jesus to 
Pilate, Matt. 27 : 2 ; Mark 15:1; Luke 23 : i ; John 
18:28. 

Pilate endeavors to deliver Jesus from death, but 
finally gives him over to crucifixion, Matt. 2j : 1 1-26 ; 
Mark 15:9-15; Luke 23: 4-24; John 18:38; 19:16. 

The supernatural darkness, from the sixth hour 

* Ellicott, 2)?>Z) i^ Maclear's ''Class Book of the New Testament," 
p. 149. 

t Prideaux, "Connection," II., 9, p. 379. 
% Josephus, ''Antiquities," XVIIL, 3:2. 



THE THIRD PASSOVER. 265 

(twelve, midday) to the ninth hour (three in the 
afternoon), Matt. 27 145 ; Mark 15 : 33 ; Luke 23 144. 

The rending of the veil of the Temple, Matt. 
27 : 51 ; Mark 15 : 38; Luke 23 145. 

24. This veil was sixty feet high and of very 
heavy material, according to Jewish writers. A veil 
to cover the holy place was used in the temples of 
Diana at Ephesus and of Jupiter at Olympia, and as 
they were of the same material, of woollen and richly 
embroidered and in color purple, it seems they 
must have been suggested by the veil in the Jewish 
Temple, which was of the same material, work, and 
color. The Jewish veil was the inner one separating 
the '' Holy of holies '* from the other part of the sanc- 
tuary.^ For the original description see Exod. 26 : 31. 

The earthquake. Matt. 27:51. Rocks rent and 
graves opened. Matt. 27: 52. 

Centurion surprised. Matt. 27:54; Mark 15:39; 
Luke 23 :47 ; Luke adds ''all the people." 

Women beholding afar off, Matt. 27: 55, 56; Mark 
15:40; Luke 23:49; John 19:25; John states that 
some stood by the cross. 

25. Josepli of Arimatliaea applies for the 
body of Jesus, Matt. 27 : 57-60 ; Mark 1 5 : 42-47 ; Luke 
23:50-53; John 19:38. 

Nicodemus brings spices to the sepulchre, John 
29:39. 

The Jews, by Pilate's permission, set a watch, 
Matt. 27 : 62-66. 

* Pausanias, V., 12:12, in Bloomfield's *' Notes,'^ Matt. 27:51. 

12 



266 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

The descent of an angel who rolls away the 
stone, Matt. 28 : 2 ; Mark 16:5; Mark says a young 
man was sitting in the sepulchre when the two 
Marys came with spices. Luke 24 : 4 states two men 
(angels) stood at the sepulchre. John 21 mentions 
no angel at the first visit, but afterward Mary Mag- 
dalene on her return sees two angels in the sepulchre, 
John 20: II, 12. 

26. The chief priests bribe the soldiers to keep 
the secret, Matt. 28 : 11-15. 

The two disciples, Peter and Cleopas, going to 
Emmaus, see Jesus, Luke 24: 13-35. 

EMMAUS. 

27. The site of this town has not been iden- 
tified beyond doubt. But the village Amwas, fifteen 
miles northwest by west from Jerusalem, has been 
supposed to be the place. Its distance is almost too 
great for the disciples to have travelled in the time 
specified, and it is farther off than the sixty furlongs 
which is given as its distance from Jerusalem in 
Luke 24:13. But the distance is given in several 
of the old manuscripts as 160 furlongs instead of 
sixty ; especially is it so stated in the old Sinaitic 
manuscript. This fact, with the similarity of name, 
and the statement by Jerome that it was at this 
place, formerly called Nicopolis, leads to the . general 
impression that the site of Emmaus is to be found 
at Amwas. 

38. Jesus suddenly appears to the apostles as 



THE THIRD PASSOVER. 26/ 

they are gathered in a room, Thomas being absent, 
and again eight days afterward when Thomas was 
present. This is according to John 20: 19-29. Luke 
only mentions the one appearance in the room, Luke 
24 : 36-48 ; also in Mark only one appearance in the 
room as they sat at meat or together, Mark 16: 14; 
but this appearance is omitted in Matthew. 

The apostles and perhaps many others go into 
Galilee, Matt. 28:16,17; Mark makes no statement, 
nor does Luke, in reference to the going into Galilee. 
John 21 : 1-23 gives the meeting of Jesus at the Sea 
of Tiberias. 

After this he meets the apostles and over 500 
brethren at once; is ''seen of James,'* and finally 
'' of all the apostles," having led them out to Beth- 
any, where his ascension took place, i Cor. 1 5 : 6, 7 ; 
Luke 24:49-53. 



268 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

1. Immediately after the departure of our 

Saviour the disciples recovered all their faith and 
courage and returned to Jerusalem from Bethany. 

The first act of the apostles was to restore their 
number to twelve, made eleven by the apostasy of 
Judas. Two nominations were made of men who, 
like themselves, had been companions of the Saviour 
from the baptism of John to the ascension (Acts 
i:2i). The men nominated were Joseph, called 
Barsabas, and Matthias ; the latter was chosen by lot. 

2. The appointment, or selection, by lot was 
considered sacred among the ancients ; and was per- 
formed, as to the mode of the lot, by casting into 
some vessel a number of little tablets, pebbles, or 
strips of leather or papyrus, upon which were in- 
scribed the names or some distinguishing marks. 
The vessel was then shaken, and that name, or its 
representative, which first fell upon the floor deter- 
mined the choice. In the time of Homer the lot was 
cast into a helmet and shaken.-^ In Prov. i6 : 33 the 
same idea of casting the lot into a vessel is in- 
tended, with the addition that the result is guided by 
the Lord, for the English word ^4ap" in the passage 

* As mentioned, ''Iliad," III., 1. 315, 3^6, etc. '' Iliad," VII., 1. 175, 
176, etc. 



THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 269 

just quoted in the Hebrew signifies '' the opening," 
i. e., of the urn or vessel into which the lot was cast. 

The use of lots is mentioned frequently in the 
Old Testament; at first over the scapegoat, as de- 
scribed in Lev. 16:8; then in the division of the holy 
land, Num. 34:13, and, with supernatural results, at 
the detection of Achan, Josh. 7:14, 18, and Jonah 
1:7; also in the division of the priests into their 
orders, i Chron. 24: 1-5. 

The term for '' lot " in the Latin is clerus, and the 
persons chosen to any priestly office, or set apart by 
due ordination to the service of God, in the Christian 
church as a body, are called the " clergy," declar- 
ative of the fact that their possession of or appoint- 
ment to the sacred office is by divine decision, as 
was always supposed to be the case in the ancient 
priestly appointment by lots. 

PENTECOST. 

3. The next annual feast took place on the 
fiftieth day after the Passover and was called Pente- 
cost, the Greek word for the fiftieth. It was called 
the Feast^ of Weeks, Deut. 16:10, also the Feast of 
Harvest, Exod. 23:16, or of the Firstfruits, Num. 
28 : 26. It lasted but one day, and upon that day two 
loaves of the first wheat were offered at the Temple. 
The festival now called Whitsunday was suggested 
by this festival. 

When the time for this feast arrived there was at 
Jerusalem a remarkable gathering which shows to 



2/0 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

what extent the Jewish nation had already been scat- 
tered over the world. There were visitors from 
Parthia, Media, and Elam, from 600 to 700 miles on 
the east ; from Mesopotamia, about 400 miles on the 
northeast ; from Cappadocia, 500 miles on the north 
and midway between the Mediterranean and the 
Black Sea ; from Pontns lying on the Black Sea ; and 
from that part of Asia Minor then called '' Asia.'* 

This last mentioned district, although it after- 
ward gave its name to the whole vast continent, at 
this time comprised only the extreme southwestern 
parts of the peninsula, such as Caria and Lydia and 
a part of Mysia, its chief city being Ephesus. This 
was in after times the region of the '' seven churches'* 
of Revelation."^ There were gathered Jews from 
Phrygia and Pamphylia, 500 to 600 miles off towards 
the northwest, the former on the high tableland 
and the latter on the low seacoast southeast. 
They were there from Egypt on the southwest, 
and from Libya and Cyrene, 400 miles west of the 
Nile, on the African coast, and from Rome, near- 
ly 1,500 miles to the northwest; also from the island 
of Crete, 600 miles west by north, and from Arabia on 
the southeast. 

4. It was upon the occasion of this great 
gathering to Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost that 
Peter exhibited the beginning of that remarkable 
Christian courage, knowledge, and endurance which 
characterized him ever after. He was now not only 

* Conybeare and Howson's, ''Life and Travels of St. Paul," CXIV. 



THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 2/1 

the orator, but the able Christian expositor of the 
prophets and of the Psalms. The general outline of 
his address at this time is given us in Acts 2 : 14-40, 
but the effect was so great that 3,000 came out pub- 
licly and were baptized on that one day. 

5. The extreme poverty of the little band of 
apostles, as a whole, is evident ; ^' but after the Pen- 
tecost some of those who were added contributed to 
the general fund, and there was no suffering after 
the organization was complete. Acts 4 : 34. Even those 
who immediately after the crucifixion returned to 
their trades were enabled to devote their whole time 
to mission work, so far as we have any records of 
them. Acts 6 : 4. 

THE IMMEDIATE SUCCESS. 

6. From the various notices of additions to 
their number and from the official appointment of 
seven men of ability to disburse the funds and at- 
tend to the needy, Acts 6:3, it is evident that the 
numbers of the early church before the first great 
persecution began must have amounted to many 
thousands, Acts 2 142, 47 ; 5 : 14 ; 6:1,7. 

THE FIRST PERSECUTION. 

7. Of the seven men appointed to attend to 
the management of the general treasury and to the 
claims of the poor, the chief was Stephen. His ex- 
ceeding prominence in public work, his very exten- 

* John 21:2, 3. 



2J2 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

sive knowledge of the Law, and his aggressive ability 
in defending the gospel gave great offence to some 
of the Jews. The result was his arraignment before 
the Sanhedrin and examination upon the two points 
which to the Jews were the dearest of all, namely, 
the sanctity of the Temple and the supremacy of the 
Law. 

Stephen answered the inquiry of the high-priest, 
Acts 7 : 1, by a history accompanied by unmistakable 
Scripture proof that although Solomon himself was 
the builder, the Temple was no better than the wor- 
shippers, and he quoted the prophecy of Isaiah, 66 : i , 2, 
to show that the temple which the Lord honored was 
the poor and contrite spirit. He then immediately 
charged the Sanhedrin as being unworthy of the 
Temple themselves and in heart violaters of the Law 
in that they had both betrayed and murdered the 
one of whom the Law spoke, thus ending the ad- 
dress with the most terrific charges of infidelity both 
to the Temple and to the Law. No such words had 
ever been uttered before the Sanhedrin since it had 
existed. 

He was immediately dragged out of the city and 
stoned to death. Stephen was the first Christian 
martyr, 

8. This death was the sig'nal for the first 
persecution. The immediate effect of this persecu- 
tion was to scatter the members of the Christian 
community of Jerusalem not only throughout Sa- 
maria and Galilee, but even to Phoenicia, Antioch, 



THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 273 

and Cyprus, and they went preaching the same doc- 
trines which had been taught in Jerusalem, Acts 
II : 19. 

The city of Samaria was at this time one of the 
most beautiful in Palestine. It was presented to 
Herod the Great by Augustus, and in honor of the 
emperor Herod named it Sebaste."^ 

9. One of " the seven/'f of whom we have spo- 
ken was Philip, who went to this city and preached 
the new doctrine with great success. 

One of the visitors from distant lands was an of- 
ficer of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. He had 
come from that country to attend the celebration at 
Jerusalem and was returning, when by divine direc- 
tion Philip left Samaria to join him on the home- 
ward road. This officer accepted the company of 
Philip on the way, and the latter presented the new 
doctrine with such ability that the Ethiopian officer, 
who was well acquainted with the Scriptures through 
the Greek translation (the Septuagint), became the 
first recorded convert from that distant country of 
Ethiopia. 

CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

10, At the stoning* of Stephen there was a 
young man present who made himself conspicuous 
by keeping the outer garments of those who engaged 
in the act of stoning the martyr. This man was 
Saul, a Hebrew name, afterward changed into the 

* Sebaste being the Greek form of the word Augustus, 
t Acts 6: 5. 

12* 



2/4 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

Roman, form of Paul. He was a native of Tarsus, a 
large and celebrated city of Cilicia, a district on the 
northern coast of the Mediterranean, but the most 
eastern on that coast. Tarsus was a city of learned 
institutions and learned men. The tutors of two 
emperors of Rome dwelt there, and it was a favored 
city in many respects, being a place of large com- 
merce. Young Saul was sent to Jerusalem at an 
early age and became a pupil of Gamaliel. 

This Gamaliel was considered not only one of the 
most learned in the Hebrew literature but also in 
the Greek, and he was president of the Sanhedrin. 
He afterward transferred the locality of the Sanhe- 
dral schools from Jerusalem to Jamnia, the Jabneel 
of Josh. 15:11. 

11. Jabneel, or Jabneh, now called Yebneh, is 
thirteen miles due south of Jaffa, the ancient Joppa, 
and must be distinguished from the Jamnia seaport 
four and a half miles northwest, which is sometimes 
referred to by the same name, but not so in Scrip- 
ture. In the time of the Maccabees the coast town 
was a more important seaport than Joppa. During 
the crusades Jabneh was called Ibelin."^ It is built 
on a hill and is four miles from the sea. 

13. In carrying out his enmity against the 
Christians Saul determined to visit Damascus, where 
several synagogues existed. 

Damascus was about 150 miles by road northeast 
from Jerusalem. Obtaining letters of introduction 

*■ Baedeker, p. 317. 



THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 275 

from the high-priest, he set out to accomplish his 
purpose. On the way, before entering Damascus, he 
was arrested by a supernatural vision and was 
changed from the condition of a bitter and deter- 
mined enemy to that of an equally determined advo- 
cate of the Christian faith, and, after a season of ap- 
parent preparation, he returned to Jerusalem. 

But this addition to the Christian community w^as 
attended with such vexation and such disappoint- 
ment to the Jews that ^^ they went about to slay 
him,'* and it was thought best by his brethren that 
Saul should depart for Tarsus. At his departure 
the persecution ceased. 

AZOTUS, C^SAREA, LYDDA, JOPPA. 

13. These places now come into notice in con- 
nection with the missionary tours of Philip, the de- 
parture of Saul to Tarsus, and the visit of Peter to 
those who had lately joined the new fellowship. 

Philip, after leaving the Ethiopian officer of 
Queen Candace, travelled northward on the coast 
of the Mediterranean till he reached Azotus. This 
was the most important city of the Philistines in the 
time of David, and was known as Ashdod, but by the 
Greeks called Azotus. It is three miles inland from 
the coast, and situated on the slope of a large hill 
140 feet above the sea level. It is twenty-one miles 
north from Azotus to Joppa, and thirty-two from 
Joppa to Caesarea, and along this way on foot Philip 
travelled, preaching as he went. 



276 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRArHY. 

Caesarea was built by Herod the Great upon the 
former site of a little village called Strato^s Tower, 
and named after Caesar Augustus. It was magnifi- 
cently constructed as a city and as a harbor, and ves- 
sels sailed between it and many distant parts of the 
Mediterranean : hence it was at this time and long 
afterward the great shipping port of Palestine. Jose- 
phus gives us a full description of the city, and states 
that its completion was celebrated, B. C. 13, by splen- 
did games. It was the chief residence of the Roman 
officers and governors of Judaea. 

14. We have evidences that a Christian church 
had been planted here at a very early period, and in 
A. D. 200 it became the residence of ^a bishop who 
was primate of all the bishops in Palestine, Jerusa- 
lem included. Origen taught here in the third cen- 
tury, and here Eusebius was educated and afterward 
became its bishop ; he died A. D. 340. In A. D. i loi 
Caesarea was captured from the Moslems by Baldwin 
I., and among the rich booty was found a hexag- 
onal vase of green crystal supposed to have been a 
sacramental cup, and this plays an important part in 
mediaeval poetry as the ''holy grail." 

15. It was to this port that Saul was taken to 
find a passage direct for Tarsus, which was about 300 
miles north. Tarsus is ten miles off the coast and 
twelve or fifteen miles from the present Mersina, or 
ancient Soli, which was its port. 

16. Philip went to Caesarea from Azotus, 
preaching in all the cities, and here he seems to 



THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 277 

have finally settled, as years after, when Paul re- 
turned from his last missionary tour, he stopped at 
his house and stayed with Philip before going up to 
Jerusalem. At that time Philip had four daughters 
who w^ere gifted with the spirit of prophecy. Acts 
21:9. It is probable, therefore, that the extensive 
Christian influence which pervaded Csesarea for so 
many centuries afterward was greatly due to the 
early work and presence of Philip. We should not 
confound the two Philips : (i) Philip the apostle, and 
(2) this Philip, who is sometimes called Philip the 
evangelist. The latter probably died in Caesarea, 
but the apostle in Asia Minor. 

17. Lyclda and Joppa. Joppa is upon the 
sea-coast thirty-five miles northwest from Jerusalem, 
measured on a straight line, and Lydda is twelve 
miles southeast of Joppa. Joppa is mentioned in the 
inscriptions of Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, who 
reigned B. C. 705-681, as Jo-ap-pa, so that the name 
Joppa is ancient, and the place was the seaport of 
Jerusalem in the time of Solomon, B. C. 1015, at 
which he received wood ^^ out of Lebanon," 2 Chron. 
2: 16. This is the first mention in Scripture. 

It is now called Yafa, and its population is much 
greater than that which generally appears in the 
guide-books, being about 18,000, as the author has 
been informed by a long resident physician. Both 
of these places are on the great coast-plain known as 
the plain of Sharon, or Saron, which was, in the time 
of Solomon, a great pasture-land, i Chron 27 : 29. 



278 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

It is probable that at this time greater opportu- 
nity was allowed the Christians to work on in peace, 
not only because of the conversion of Saul, but be- 
cause at the death of Tiberius, March, A. D. 37, Ca- 
ligula became emperor, and the attention of the Jews 
was violently drawn to care for themselves. 

On his accession to power Caligula ordered that 
divine honors should be paid to him throughout 
the empire. In furtherance of this order he direct- 
ed that an image of himself should be placed in the 
Holy of holies, the most sacred place in the Tem- 
ple at Jerusalem. Such a profanation of the Tem- 
ple was so abhorrent to the Jews that it seemed at 
one time to the prefect of Syria, Petronius, that the 
Jews must be exterminated if the order was carried 
out, and he wrote to Caligula in accordance with his 
impression. But the emperor was inexorable, and it 
is impossible to say what would have been the re- 
sult had not Caligula been assassinated, on the 24th 
of January, A. D. 41."^ • 

18. A. D. 38. It was during these troublous 
times in the Jewish community that the apostle 
Peter went to Lydda in the course of his visits to 
the Christian churches. There he raised ^neas 
from a sick-bed, Acts 9:33, and going from Lydda to 
Joppa he raised Dorcas to life. Acts 9 : 40. 

A. D. 41. Peter now visited Csesarea by the in- 
vitation of Cornelius, the centurion, or captain of a 

* Josephus' ''Antiquities," XIX., i:ii, and Maclear's *' New Testa- 
ment History," p. 394. 



THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 279 

band called the Italian band, or cohort, probably be- 
cause it was a company of soldiers who were all 
from Italy, enlisted under Roman orders. 

The soldiers usually employed were provincial, 
that is, belonging to the country where they were 
stationed ; but in this case they were sent here from 
Italy and were generally composed of both infantry 
and cavalry, serving as a body-guard for the governor, 
and were probably at this time garrisoning Caesarea.^ 

* These cohorts are mentioned by Arrian ; see authority in Bloom- 
field's ''Notes/' Acts 10:1. 



28o BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE GOSPEL FOR GENTILES AS WELL AS JEWS. FIRST 
MISSIONARY TOUR OF PAUL AND BARNABAS. 

1. It is a remarkable fact that, although the 
apostles were so fully persuaded of the verity and 
power of the gospel, they had not yet learned the 
intent and universality of its application to the Gen- 
tiles and to all the human race, and though commis- 
sioned by their Master to preach it *'to all the 
world,'* still held that the Jewish people were the 
only chosen race and all others were unclean, and 
that it was unlawful to associate, or eat, and com- 
mune freely with any but that race. Hence up to 
this time the gospel had been preached with the in- 
tent of converting only Jews to the Christian faith. 

3. In view of these strong prejudices a re- 
markable ^'vision in a trance,'' Acts 11:5, on the 
housetop, at Joppa, was granted Peter, whereby for 
the first time he was led to comprehend the fact that 
hereafter spiritual cleanliness should, in the divine 
sight and purposes, for ever cancel all obligations to 
the merely ceremonial, and he was then directed to 
immediately proceed to the house and to the Gentile 
company awaiting him at Caesarea. The history is 
recorded in Acts 10. 

3. On his return to Jerusalem he communi- 



THE GOSPEL FOR THE GENTILES. 28 1 

cated the new order, that now the gospel was to be 
preached to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews, and 
he narrated his vision and the consequent visit to 
Caesarea. All of which was accepted w^ithont dis- 
cussion and with very evident satisfaction. 

Saul however, having been forced to leave Pales- 
tine, travelled throughout Cilicia and Syria, Gal. 
I : 21, until he was invited back to Jerusalem. 

4. At this time, about A. D. 41, Antioch was 
a city of large population and many Jews inhabited 
the place, who became strong adherents to the new 
faith, and it was now that, at this place, the name 
Christian was applied to all who were followers of 
Christ, although at first they themselves did not ac- 
cept the name. 

THE TWO ANTIOCHS. 

Antiocli in Syria was 300 miles north of Jeru- 
salem and about fifteen miles from the Mediterra- 
nean shore, where was its port, then called Seleucia. 
It was the most beautiful city of Syria and at that 
time the most important. 

Antiocli in Pisidia, however, which is now^ 
called Yalobatch, is 500 miles northwest of Jerusalem 
and 100 north of the coast of the Mediterranean. 
This Antioch is partly on the southern declivity of a 
long range of mountains and owes its ancient name 
to the same king who gave name to the Syrian An- 
tioch. This king was Seleucus, king of Syria, whose 
father's name, Antiochus, he gave to these cities and 



282 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

his own to Seleucia, fifteen miles off, on the coast, of 
which we have already spoken. 

Antioch was at this time the adopted city of a very 
active community of Christians, many of whom were 
Grecians and others Gentiles. Paul, whose special 
talents and education admirably fitted him for this 
class of converts, being now at Tarsus, was sent for, 
and he remained in Antioch for about a year ; when 
he, with others, began a series of missionary tours 
whereby the gospel was not only extended through- 
out Western Asia but introduced into Europe, as 
we shall soon see. 

5, A. D. 42. About tills period there came 
to Antioch a prophet, by name Agabus, one of a 
number who not only foretold events but seemed en- 
dowed with extraordinary powers of exposition of the 
divine word."^ This prophet announced that a great 
famine would soon call for generosity on the part 
of the church at Antioch towards the poorer mem- 
bers of the community in Judaea, Acts 11:28. 

This announcement was made during the reign 
of Claudius, A. D. 41-54, of which reign Tacitus says 
that it was distinguished for earthquakes, bad har- 
vests, and general scarcity. f The Christians in An- 
tioch, therefore, sent contributions to Jerusalem and 
commissioned Saul and Barnabas for the purpose of 
conveying these gifts, Acts 1 1 : 29. 

*" Maclear, " New Testament History," p. 403, note. 

t Tac, "Ann.," 12:13; Josephus, ''Antiquities," III., 15:3; XX., 2:5. 
The famine here foretold took place in Judaea A. D. 44, in the fourth 
year of Claudius. Josephus, *' Antiquities," XIX., 7:2. 



THE GOSPEL FOR THE GENTILES. 283 

For the first time we now read of the term '' pres- 
byters '' in the Greek, or seniores in the Vulgate 
translation, and called *' elders " in the English ver- 
sion, Acts 1 1 : 30. 

6. At this time Herod Agrippa (see table page 
229) ruled in Judaea. Claudius had known him as 
an earnest advocate of his rule before his succession 
to the empire, and he therefore rewarded Herod 
with the addition of Samaria and Judaea to those 
possessions of Philip Antipas which he before pos- 
sessed. Herod had been imprisoned by Tiberius, 
but Caligula restored him to liberty and presented 
him with a golden chain of the same weight as the 
iron one he had worn in prison, and this chain he 
dedicated to the Temple when, A. D. 42, he arrived 
in Jerusalem. This Herod courted the favor of the 
Jews by many public acts. In his time the northern 
section of Jerusalem, now inclosed with a wall, was 
a suburb ; and he inclosed it and, had not the prefect 
of Syria compelled him to stop, he would have 
strengthened all the fortifications of the city. 

7. It was evidently, therefore, because it 
pleased the Jews, and probably at their instigation, 
that he wilfully put to death James, the son of 
Zebedee, with the sword and proceeded to perpe- 
trate the same atrocity with Peter, having impris- 
oned him for that purpose. The history of this act 
of Herod and of the escape of Peter is given in Acts 
12. Herod, being not only disappointed, but evident- 
ly alarmed, at the mystery of Peter's escape, retired 



284 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

immediately from Jerusalem to Caesarea and there 
met liis sudden death, in the fifty-fourth year of his 
age, after seven years' reign in Palestine. 

8. The dominion of these districts, Judaea, 
Samaria, and Galilee, now reverted to the prefect of 
Syria, and they were fully incorporated with the 
Roman Empire."^ 

JUD^A, SAMARIA, AND GALILEE. 

The boundaries of these districts cannot be 
exactly traced. Judaea was the most important ; and 
its north border began at the Jordan and probably 
ran up the valley of the Farah to the Jewish city 
Akrabeh, thence westward along the course of the 
valley of the present river Ballut, coming out at the 
city Antipatris ; and although the plain of Sharon 
was politically a part of Judaea, Herod having pos- 
session of the maritime towns, yet strictly the line 
followed the river out to the sea. 

This line formed the north boundary of Judaea 
and the south boundary of Samaria, in the strictly 
Jewish sense. 

Of Galilee, the south boundary began at the Jor- 
dan east of Beth-shean, which was a Samaritan city. 
It ran along, probably, south of Mt. Gilboa, westward 
and just north of Jenin, the ancient En-gannim, 
which was within the Samaritan border, and probably 

■^'" Merivale, VI., 116, 117. Cassias Longiniis was now appointed, 
A. D. 44, to the presidency of Syria, and Cuspius Fadns was appointed 
governor of Judaea, Josephus, ''Antiquities," XIX., 9:2; XX., 1:1. See 
Maclear, ''New Testament History," p. 409. 



THE GOSPEL FOR THE GENTILES. 285 

along the ridge of Carmel. At the end of the ridge, 
near the sea, Galilee seems to have claimed the mod- 
ern Haifa, a village then called Sycaminon, and in 
this vicinity the seashore was in Galilee. The bor- 
der line of Galilee thence retired inland, the coast 
plain belonging to Phoenicia. It then ran northeast- 
erly to the angle formed by the Leontes River, now 
called the Kasimiyeh, then northward a short dis- 
tance, and then east by south to Banias, thence south- 
ward, including some towns east of the upper Jordan 
and the Sea of Galilee, forming that part of Galilee 
called '^ Galilee beyond Jordan." 

The extreme southern boundary of Judaea, in the 
political sense, is mentioned in one of the rabbini- 
cal writings as from Petra to Ascalon, but Ascalon 
itself did not belong to Judaea.* 

The apostles now seem to have '' left Jerusalem 
for wider fields of action. "f 

9. After a special religious consecration (Acts 
13:3), Barnabas and Saul, accompanied by John 
Mark, a nephew of Barnabas, set out from Antioch 
on the first missionary tour to foreign countries. 

Seleucia was nearly four miles north of the 
mouth of the Orontes, upon which river the city of 
Antioch was built. From this port the missionaries 
set sail for Cyprus, 1 30 miles distant. 

^ For authorities and more minute description see Conder's '^ Hand- 
book to the Bible," p. 301, seq. For Galilee see Merrill's " Galilee in 
the time of Christ." 

t Lightfoot "On the Galatians," p. 285. Maclear, "New Testa- 
ment History," p. 40. 



286 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

Salamls at this time was a populous city on the 
southeastern shore of Cyprus. In this city there was 
a colony of Jews, and Barnabas was a native of 
Cyprus, and therefore the visitors did not feel them- 
selves entirely strangers. But they passed along the 
southern coast road until Paphos, loo miles distant, 
was reached. Here the apostle Paul met with the 
proconsul Sergius Paulus. 

A PROCONSUL. 

10. From the time of Augustus, B. C. 27, the 
provinces were of two kinds. Senatorial and Impe- 
rial. The former were governed by a proconsul, 
who was appointed by lot and had no military power, 
and was in office for one year only. 

The latter, or imperial provinces, were governed 
by a legate or commissioner chosen directly by the 
emperor, and he served so long as the emperor 
wished. He always went out to his province with 
military pomp as a commander. 

11. Syria was an Imperial province, and 
was governed by a legate or commissioner of the em- 
peror stationed at Antioch. Judaea, however, was a 
special province, and its distance from Antioch and 
its peculiar people required a special officer under 
the commissioner at Antioch, and this officer was 
called a procurator. He had his headquarters at 
Csesarea, Acts 23 : 23, wore the military dress, and 
had a cohort as a body-guard. Matt. 27:27, called in 
this passage ''the soldiers of the governor;'' more- 



THE GOSPEL FOR THE GENTILES. 28/ 

over, he had the power of life and death, Matt. 
27 : 26y in his own province. 

12. At the interview wliich Saul had with 
the proconsul, called here the '' deputy," there was 
one of the class known at that day as sorcerers. 
This man greatly interfered with the apostle's effort 
to explain the new faith to the proconsul, who had 
requested instruction. 

13. Peter had encountered one of this class 
before. Acts 8 : 9. The apostle now addressed the 
so-called sorcerer in terrible rebuke, foretelling his 
immediate blindness for a season, and thereby show- 
ing that behind the earnest and reasonable presenta- 
tion of the great truths of the new faith which had 
fully persuaded the proconsul there lay the reserved 
authority of so great supernatural power to attest the 
divinity of the doctrine."^ That this is the meaning 
of the verse in Acts 13 : 12 is evident from a verse in 
Luke 4 : 32, which shows that it was the method of 
confirming the doctrine, and not the doctrine itself, 
which caused the astonishment spoken of in the 
verse. 

14. From this time Saul's name is changed 
into Paul, and the other name never occurs again in 
Scripture. The apostle and his companions now 
sailed from Paphos to the city of Perga in Pamphy- 
lia, 175 miles northwest. Mark left them at Perga 

* There was a remarkable influx of Oriental sorcerers, astrologers, 
and soothsayers at this time into Rome and other cities, as Conybeare 
and Howson show, Vol. I., p. 141. 



288 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

and returned to Jerusalem for reasons not explained 
in the text. 

Perga exists as a ruin six or seven miles from 
the seacoast and about 15 miles northeast of a sea- 
port called Adalia by the Turks, the ancient Attalia, 
built by Attains, the king of Pergamos, 159-138 B. 
C, and hence its name. It has at present about 8,000 
inhabitants, and surrounds the port as an amphithea- 
tre, the streets rising one above another. 

15. From Perga the apostle proceeded to Anti- 
'och, now called Yalobatch, about 90 miles north of 
Perga. The plain upon which Perga is situated is 
about 20 miles wide on the seacoast, and stretches 
eastward for about 30 miles. East of Perga the 
Eurymedon River comes down through the plain 
into the sea, and its sources are high in the ridges 
north of Perga. It is probable that up the valley of 
this river the apostles passed to the high table-land 
of Pisidia upon which Antioch is placed. 

16. When they had arrived at Aiitioch they 
awaited the Sabbath -gathering at the synagogue, 
and being, as the custom was, invited to speak to the 
assembled Jews and strangers, the apostle Paul pre- 
sented the connection between the promises of the 
Old Testament and the fulfilment of these promises 
in the coming and the teachings of Christ. 

The impression made was so important and favor- 
able that another gathering of a great crowd assem- 
bled on the following Sabbath. At this time, how- 
ever, the Jews and Jewish women created so great 



THE GOSPEL FOR THE GENTILES. 289 

and so public opposition that the apostle was led to 
announce that hereafter he should devote his labors 
to the conversion of the Gentiles and leave the Jews 
to the consequences of their bitter opposition to the 
gospel he was called to preach. 

But a church was planted here in spite of the 
opposition, which caused the departure of the apos- 
tles across the country to Iconium, about 85 miles 
southeast. 

ICONIUM. 

17. This city is located upon the large plain 
which stretches eastward 80 or 90 miles with little 
interruption. On the southeast a solitary mountain 
rises at a distance of about 30 miles, ''like a lofty 
island in the midst of the sea.""^ The height of this 
mountain is nearly 4,000 feet above the plain. In 
March its top is generally covered with snow. Here 
are the ruins of many tombs, churches, and other 
apparently public buildings, and these ruins have 
given rise to the Turkish name Bin-bir-ka-lessi, or 
the '' thousand-and-one churches.'* With general 
consent this place is supposed to mark the site of 
Lystra, which became the next place of visit by the 
apostles after leaving Iconium. The name of this 
singular mountain in the Turkish is Kara-dagh, or 
Black Mountain. 

The plain upon which Iconium is located is sup- 
posed to be 3,900 feet above the Mediterranean. Ico- 
nium was a Greek city, if we may judge from the 

* Walpole, *' Travels in the East," p. 222. 

Biblical History and Geo^raplij'. j -j 



290 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

large ntimber of Greek ruins and inscriptions yet 
remaining, many of which are built into the walls of 
the town. 

Here Barnabas and Saul proceeded to work as at 
Antioch, and addressed the Jews gathered at the 
synagogue in that place. But although their success 
was great a division of opinion resulted, and the 
Jews made preparations to assault their visitors, but 
they fled to Lystra. 

18. The identification of Lystra with Bin- 
bir-ka-lessi has not been proved, but the supposed 
position at the ruins above mentioned is on a large 
depression on the north side of the Kara-dagh 
Mountain. The village, not far off, is inhabited by 
Greeks. 

At Lystra the two missionaries found no syna- 
gogue, and addressed the citizens in some public 
place. Here Paul restored a man who had been born 
lame, and the consequent amazement produced by 
this miracle induced the priest of Jupiter to bring 
oxen and garlands to the gates of the temple with 
the intent of offering sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas, 
who, despite their most earnest protestations, found 
it difficult to prevent the sacrifices. 

But the Jewish enmity was apparent again. Some 
of the members of the synagogues in Antioch and 
Iconium followed the apostle and Barnabas across 
the plain, and so bitterly prejudiced the inhabitants 
that they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the 
city, supposing him to be dead. Under the care of 



THE GOSPEL FOR THE GENTILES. 29I 

the disciples he revived, and the next day departed 
for Derbe. 

Derbe has not yet been identified, but it is sup- 
posed to be at a ruin about 25 miles east of Kara- 
dagh, called Divle. 

19. There Barnabas and Paul made appar- 
ently a short visit, during which they preached to 
many; but nothing more is stated than that they 
now returned upon the same line of travel, revisiting 
and encouraging their converts at Lystra, Iconium, 
and Antioch, and thence returning to Perga. 

Here they remained and preached, and then de- 
parted for Attalia, the seaport, distant about 1 5 miles 
southwCwSt, whence they sailed on return to Antioch 
in Syria. 

30. But the old question of observance of the 
Law of Moses, which had been agitated before and 
had never been satisfactorily quieted, now reappeared 
under such conditions that it demanded immediate 
and most serious attention. Some troublesome Jew- 
ish converts visiting Antioch proclaimed, as if charged 
with the authority of the elders at Jerusalem, that 
the Greek and other Gentile converts must submit to 
the rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic Law or they 
could not be saved. The discussion became so un- 
pleasant at Antioch that a delegation, consisting of 
the apostle Paul, Barnabas, and others, went to Jeru- 
salem to present the subject to a general council for 
decision. 

31. After the discussion in this general coun- 



292 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

cil, it was decided that nothing should be required 
of the new Gentile converts except abstinence 
*' from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and 
from things strangled, and from fornication." With 
this, the only concession to the Law of Moses, they 
returned to Antioch and announced to the assembled 
multitudes the decision of the council, which now 
and for ever set the question at rest. Henceforward 
all Christian converts were free from the restrictions 
and rites of the Mosaic Ceremonial Law. 



THE SECOND AND THIRD MISSIONARY TOURS. 293 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE SECOND AND THIRD MISSIONARY TOURS. 

1, A. D. 53. A few days afterward, Acts 
15 : 36, Paul and Silas set out upon a second journey. 
The expressed object was to revisit the churches 
they had planted. Barnabas preferred his nephew as 
companion; but Paul, fearing that the desertion 
which had previously taken place on the part of 
Mark might be repeated, preferred to associate him- 
self with Silas. 

Barnabas and Mark left for Cyprus, while Paul 
and Silas started for Derbe, not as before by sea, but 
northward, by land, across the mountain known as 
Amanus, the pass of this range being about twenty 
miles north of Antioch in Syria. This pass is now 
known as that of Beilan, which lets the traveller 
down upon the famous plain of Issus, where, B. C. 
333, Alexander the Great had met and defeated the 
Persian king Darius. Crossing this plain to the ex- 
treme northeastern end of the Mediterranean, now 
called the Gulf of Iskanderun (or Alexandre tta), an 
additional distance of about twenty-five or thirty 
miles from the mountain pass, they had then the 
towns of Mopsuesta and Tarsus on the Roman road 
on the plain directly west as they turned around the 
corner of the coast."^ 

* Conybeare and Howson place Adana and JEgse on the course, but 
Adana is thought to have been planted by Justinian, and ^gse if at Aias, 
35 miles southeast of Adana on the coast, was too far out of the way. 



294 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

2. It appearS3 lioivever, that they soon reached 
the pass north of Tarsus, by which they made their 
ascent to the great high tableland. This pass was 
probably that of the so-called ''Silician Gates/' 
twenty-two or twenty-three miles north of Tarsus, 
at the top of which is the supposed site of Derbe, 
about fifty miles a little north of west, upon the 
great plain we have before described. 

3. From Derbe they passed westward to Lys- 
tra. Here Paul found Timothy, a young convert 
from the last visit, as mentioned. Acts i6. Thence 
they came to Iconium. 

They now left the former route, and judging 
from the direction of the old roads and general 
routes of travel between important cities at that 
time, it is probable that their course was through 
Laodicea (now called Ladik),^ Philomelium,andSyn- 
nada, the last two known at present as Ak-sher and 
Eski Kara-hisser, or the '' old black castle.'' 

Ladik is twenty-four or five miles northwest of 
Iconium and has many remains of antiquity. It is 
now a small place of only 500 inhabitants. Ak-sher, 
or the '' white city '' of the Turks, is about sixty-five 
miles northwest of Iconium and contains about 1,500 
houses, and is the Philomelium of Strabo, the geog- 
rapher. There is a remarkable salt lake ten miles 
north of it, which is dry in summer and affords much 
salt at that season, but in the winter is full and ex- 
tends some twenty or thirty miles westward. 

*" Not the Laodicea of Scripture. 



THE SECOND AND THIRD MISSIONARY TOURS. 2g5 

4. The next point which seems to have been 
on the course of travel was near the great centre of 
the present opium manufacture of Asia Minor, name- 
ly, the place called ''the opium black castle,** or 
Aphium Kara-hissar of the Turks. This place is 
on the northern base of a hill on the south side 
of the river of the Ak-sher lake before spoken of. 
This river is a small stream whose source is in the 
hills west of the town, but it is lost in the lake, hav- 
ing- no other outlet. Very fine marble quarries ex- 
isted in this region in ancient times."^ 

5. From this place it is thought probable, 
judging, as we have said, from the lines of travel 
well known in those days, that the missionaries went 
northeastward, first to Pessinus, now Bali-hissar, and 
then Ancyra, the present Angora, famous for its fine- 
haired goats and containing a population of perhaps 
35,000. But nothing is known certainly of the ex- 
act places visited, only that it is stated they went 
^'throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia/* 
and then probably on the same route back to Syn- 
nada, and '''passing by,*' that is on the borders of 
Mysia, came down to Troas. 

6. Troas was at this time a very important sea- 
port on the northwest of Asia Minor near the site of 
ancient Troy and opposite the southeast extremity 
of the island of Tenedos, four miles distant. It is 
now called Eski Stamboul, i. e.. Old Constantinople. 

7. From here Paul and Silas set sail directly 

* Strabo, 12; died A. D. 25; Claudian in ^' Eutropius," 2, A. D. 395. 



296 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

towards Satnothrace, an island in the ^gean Sea 
northwest from Troas, and landed at Neapolis on 
the shore of Macedonia. Thence they travelled 
about twelve miles north to Philippi, which was a 
Roman military colony. Here the events occurred 
which are described in Acts 16: 12-40. 

8. From Philippi the travellers took the Ro- 
man road to Amphipolis. This city stood on high 
ground about three miles from the sea and thirty- 
three from Philippi. It was colonized by Athenians 
and called Amphipolis from being nearly surrounded 
by the river Strymon. 

9. The next point reached was Apollonia, but 
the exact location is not known. It is laid down in 
some of the ancient itineraries as being thirty miles 
from Amphipolis. Thence they travelled to Thessa- 
lonica, thirty-seven miles distant from Apollonia. 
This was a very important place and is even now 
second only to Constantinople. Its present name is 
Saloniki and it is at the head of the Thermaic Gulf. 
It was a busy commercial town at the time of the 
visit of the two missionaries. Here Paul and Silas 
remained for several weeks, publicly explaining and 
proving the new doctrines of the gospel, Acts 
17: 1-IO. 

10. Opposition from the Jews arising, they 
left for Beroea. Beroea is now called Verria, and is 
sixty miles west by north from Thessalonica. It is 
a large town at present, having some 20,000 inhab- 
itants. Here the usual vexation and opposition on 



THE SECOND AND THIRD MISSIONARY TOURS. 297 

the part of the Jews made it necessary that the 
apostle Paul should leave the town, and at night and 
alone he went down to the seashore to a shipping 
town about twenty-five miles distant, called Dium, 
and from thence he set sail for Athens, which was 
by sea about 270 miles distant. We now may read 
the history as recorded in Acts 1 7. 

11. Athens at the time of the apostle's visit 
was included in the Roman province of Achaia. It 
was not then in its palmiest days of prosperity, but it 
was nevertheless the centre of art and learning and 
a city of great voluptuousness and idolatry. It con- 
tained one large Agora, " the market " or place of 
assembling of its citizens, a large square or open 
place which not only contained but was surrounded 
by the finest sculptures and buildings perhaps at 
that time existing in the world. The apostle came 
here alone, i Thess. 3:1, and while waiting for his 
companions he met and preached to many in the 
Agora, until he attracted so much attention that he 
was invited to the great assembling-place on the 
north of the Agora called the Areopagus, where the 
most important court or council of the Areopagus 
was held. Solon gave the court censorial and politi- 
cal powers, but St. Paul was called here more because 
of the curious desire of the Athenians to hear about 
this new doctrine. At this place he delivered that 
masterly address recorded in Acts 17.*^ 

His labors at Athens did not meet with much 

^'* Conybeare and Howson, Vol. I., pp. 440-444, second edition. 



298 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

success, although some were persuaded and believed, 
and one of the court itself, Dionysius by name, who 
afterwards became a bishop of a Christian commu- 
nity formed there. Paul soon left Athens for Cor- 
inth."^ 

13. Corinth was a rival of Athens in luxury and 
magnificence, in commerce and in wealth, and was 
perhaps even in art second only to Athens. It was 
situated upon the isthmus of the Peloponnesus and 
noted for its Acropolis, built upon an elevation 1,886 
feet above the city on the south. It was sacked and 
nearly destroyed by the Romans, B. C. 146, and 
nearly all the treasures of art were carried to Rome, 
but the city was restored under Julius C^sar. Only 
a few ruins remain. The modern town is on the 
Gulf of Corinth, three miles north from the site of 
the old city, and contains about 2,600 inhabitants. It 
is 45 miles a little south of due west from Athens.^ 
Here Paul remained for nearly two years, A. D. 52, 
53, and preached with great success ; and while here 
he wrote the Epistle to the Thessalonians :{: and 
planted other churches in Achaia, 2 Cor. 1:1. 

13. Cenclirese was five and a half miles east- 
southeast of Corinth on the shore of the Gulf of 
^gina. It was an important port at the time when 
the apostle visited it. At present it is called Kekri- 
ais§ and is not inhabited ;' the only remains are of an 

••'' Ayres' Dictionary, " Athens.'' 

t See account in Lippincott's "Gazetteer." 

J To the Church at Thessalonica. 

2 As an educated Greek lady wrote it for the author, Kexpicus* 



THE SECOND AND THIRD MISSIONARY TOURS. 299 

ancient dry dock. From this place Paul set sail for 
Ephesus, 235 miles almost due east. 

14. Ephesus is 35 miles south-southeast from 
Smyrna, near where the river Cayster empties into 
the Gulf of Scala Nova. It was the capital of Ionia 
and had one of the seven churches mentioned in the 
book of Revelation. The ruins which remain con- 
sist chiefly of a magnificent • theatre, supposed to be 
large enough to accommodate 30,000 people, a stadium 
or gymnasium, besides walls and towers and remains 
of the temple of Diana, for which it was most famous. 
The worship of Diana was attended with the study 
and practice of magic in various forms, and the 
'' magical letters " spoken of by many classic authors'^ 
as '' Ephesian letters '* were in use at the time of the 
apostle's visit. The temple was in its splendor also 
at that time.f 

On this the first visit, A. D. 54, of the apostle to 
Ephesus he remained but a short time, and then de- 
parted for Jerusalem, Acts 18:19-21, and thence 
down to Antioch. 

THE THIRD MISSIONARY TOUR. 

15. In tills tour the startlng'-place was at 

Antioch, as in the former tour. The churches plant- 
ed in Galatia and Phrygia were visited, perhaps on 
the line of travel previously chosen, and then a 

* Pliny, ^6, chap. 14; Strabo, 12 and 14; Mela, etc. 

t Mucianus, A. D. 75, says that in his time the woodwork appeared 
as new, though nearly 400 years old. Tristram, *' Seven Churches of 
Asia," p. 14. 



300 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

course was taken direct to Ephesus, which now be- 
came the centre of the apostle's labors, A. D. 54-57. 

16. It was at the close of this visit that the re- 
markable tumult described in Acts 19 took place, 
A. D. 57. 

Paul now left Ephesus for Philippi by Neapolis, 
as in the previous journey, and thence to Thessa- 
lonica and Beroea, and onward by land to Corinth, a 
journey of about 220 miles through Thessaly and 
Achaia. 

17. But it seems, Rom. 15 : 19, that at Thessaloni- 
ca Paul resolved to visit the lands west of Macedonia 
as far as lUyricum. This was probably in the sum- 
mer of A. D. 57, and perhaps the autumn. The jour- 
ney was along the Roman road to Dyrrachium, about 
200 miles, and across several ranges of mountains. 

While at Dyrrachium it is probable he made a 
tour about 1 70 miles to the south to Neapolis, on the 
Bay of Arta, and returning by the city ApoUonia on 
the Adriatic, came back to Beroea and thence to Cor- 
inth. The region which he visited was that Dalma- 
tia referred to in 2 Tim. 4:10. Dalmatia was included 
in the greater region of lUyricum, and was upon the 
shore of the Adriatic, being contiguous to Moesia on 
the north and Macedonia on the east. 

18. After ivinterin^ at Corinth, Paul with 
several friends. Acts 20 : 4, returned to Achaia, Beroea, 
and the towns previously visited, to Neapolis, and 
thence by sea to Troas. At this place the events 
stated in Acts 20 took place. 



THE SECOND AND THIRD MISSIONARY TOURS. 30I 

Remaining a short time at Troas while his com- 
panions took ship, Paul walked across the promon- 
tory to Assos, about 25 miles distant by the road, 
and arrived in time to meet the ship, which had to 
stop at that city. The place Assos is now a small 
village known by the name Beiram. 

19. From this place they sailed by Mitylene, 
the capital of the island of the same name, now 
called Lesbos. Going between the islands and the 
shore, they passed Chios, Samos, and the promon- 
tory and cape at Trogyllium on the then Ionian 
coast. At Miletus Paul stopped and sent for the 
elders at Ephesus while the vessel was exchanging 
freight. Miletus is about 50 miles south of Eph- 
esus. Passing Cos, which is about 55 miles from 
Miletus, and then the island of Rhodes, they put into 
Patera in Lycia, which was a seaport of the town of 
Xanthus, famous for its oracle. Thence, taking an- 
other vessel. Acts 21:2, Paul sailed directly for Tyre, 
on the Phoenician coast. From this city he and his 
party sailed for Ptolemais, 28 miles southward, where 
the sea voyage ended. 

20. The rest of the journey to Jerusalem was 
on foot by Caesarea. The occurrences at Caesarea are 
narrated in Acts 21, and on his arrival at Jerusalem 
Paul was seized in the Temple by a mob comprised 
of resident Jews, urged on by some who were in 
attendance upon the feast from foreign parts who 
had seen Paul abroad in some Asiatic place. 

Paul was now protected by the military inter- 



302 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

ference of tHe Roman chief ^' captain of the band '' 
stationed at the Temple. The history is minutely 
given lis in Acts 21 : 32-40. By the order of Festus 
the governor, called the procurator of Judaea, who 
succeeded Felix A. D. 61, Paul was taken to Caesarea. 

21. On Paul's appeal to Caesar he was taken 
on board a vessel sailing from Caesarea and commit- 
ted to the care of a centurion, Acts 27 : i. 

The course of the vessel, as stated Acts 27, was 
first to Sidon, where a short stay was made. Then 
*' under Cyprus," that is to the east of the island, 
as the winds were from the northwest and contrary, 
they ''tacked" to Myra, a city of Lycia. This city 
stands upon a hill about two miles back from the 
shore. It is now called by its ancient name by the 
Greeks. Its port is Andriaca. 

33. The course tlience was to Cnidus, which 
is at the western end of a peninsula between the 
islands Rhodes and Cos; there they changed their 
course to the southward and passed cape Salmone, 
on the extreme east of the island of Crete. The 
wind now was more ahead, that is, against them. 
Hence they ''hardly," meaning "with difficulty," 
reached Fair Havens, near which was the city of 
Lasea. It is ninety miles from Cnidus to Cape Sal- 
mone and seventy from Salmone to Lasea. The 
island of Crete is 160 miles long, and they remained 
under Crete and near the shore, hoping to reach Phoe- 
nice, which is about forty miles from Lasea. 

23. They had not sailed more than about 



THE SECOND AND THIRD MISSIONARY TOURS. 303 

twenty miles before the wind, which had been from 
the south, changed around and blew so violently 
from the east that the vessel became unmanageable 
and they '' let her drive." The course was now west 
by north seven degrees, and this course was kept 
from Clauda to Melita, about 500 miles. Clauda is 
south of Crete twenty miles. 

MALTA. 

34. Malta is the largest of a group of islands, 
the one at that time called Melita, now Malta, being 
the easternmost. The shore is almost entirely pre- 
cipitous ; two or three small bays are found on the 
northern shore, one of which is supposed to be that 
into which Paul's ship was driven. It is fifteen 
miles from the eastern end of the island, which is 
twenty miles in length, and this is the only bay on 
that side with a stream emptying into its waters. 
The stream is only a very small brook coming down 
from a source in the southwest. It was running in 
November when the writer visited the locality. 

35. Acts 37 : 21 to 38 : 10 should be read in 
this connection. The island of Malta contains 
many ancient remains of Phoenician, Greek, and 
Gothic construction. In the Library at Valetta are 
three medals and other objects found on the island 
said to contain Phoenician letters, and Sir W. Drum- 
mond has translated a Punic legend found on a 
square stone in a sepulchral cave which states that it 
marks the burial-place of Hannibal. 



304 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

26. After three months' stay on this island 
Paul's company proceeded on their way to Rome, 
stopping at Syracuse three days. Syracuse at this 
time seems to have been very populous. It was on 
the eastern part of Sicily and on the coast, and was 
the residence, at various times, of some of the most 
celebrated philosophers and poets, Plato, Simonides, 
Zeno, and Cicero ; and here Archimedes lost his life 
at the capture of the city by the Romans. 

37. Thence the vessel passed to Rhegium, 
now called Reggio (pronounced red' jo). This place, 
in Calabria, is the southernmost city and seaport of 
Italy, and was once a renowned city eight miles 
southeast of Messina across the strait of the same 
name. It has a population now of about 20,000. 

38. The next day they came to Puteoli, now 
Pozzuoli (pronounced pot-soo-o'-lee) on a gulf of the 
same name seven miles southwest of Naples, Its 
vicinity was celebrated as the residence of wealthy 
Romans and the port was an important one. But the 
land has sunken, as the writer found many evidences 
that parts of the ancient city were covered with the 
waters of the sea. 

39. The main Roman road, called the Appian 
Way, was now taken, upon which was the market- 
place called Apii Forum, forty-three miles from 
Rome. Its site is supposed to be marked by some 
ruins near Treponti. Farther on was a place called 
the '' Three Taverns,'' about thirty-three Roman 
miles from the city and near the present Cisterna. 



THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 305 



CHAPTER IX. 

PAUL AT ROME. THE SEVEN CHURCHES. COLOSSE 
AND HIERAPOLIS. 

1. After their arrival at Rome, Paul was per- 
mitted to dwell by himself with a soldier who kept 
him and to whom he was bound with a chain, Acts 
28 : 20. For two years Paul remained at Rome in a 
hired house. Acts 28 : 30, teaching and preaching to 
all those who came to visit him, and no one forbade 
him, for the Jews at Rome were under so great fear 
of the Government that they were exceedingly cau- 
tious to cause no uproar. They had not long before 
been expelled from the city in consequence of an up- 
roar, and they were forced to express any objections 
to the new faith in a very quiet way."^ 

2. We can learn nothing* of the subsequent 
life of the apostle except from notices which occur 
in the various epistles. It appears that the Jews 
were unable to gather any definite charge sufficient 
to sustain them in any plea against Paul. But dur- 
ing this long residence at Rome several epistles 
were written and many converts were made through 
the apostle's efforts. 

3. For Ms suceess in preaching see Phile. 
14. It is evident that Luke was with him, Col. 4:15; 

* Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes Roma expulit. 
Suetonius, Claudian, 25. 



306 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

Phile. 24 ; Timothy also, Phile. i ; Col. 1:1; Phil. 
1:1; and others ; see Col. 4:7; Eph. 6:21; and John 
Mark was found ''profitable to him/' Col. 4:10' 
2 Tim. 4: i; Phile. 24; Col. 4:14; 2 Tim. 4:10, 
wherein we see that Demas afterward forsook him ; 
Col. I : 7. 

At this time the case of Onesimns is interesting ; 
see Epistle to Philemon. Onesimns had escaped to 
Rome and had been converted to the true faith, 
but after his conversion returned with a letter from 
Paul to his master. 

The Epistle to the Colossians was now written 
and sent probably by Onesimus and Tychicus, the 
latter being charged with another epistle, namely, 
to the Ephesians. 

These letters were written probably in the spring 
of A. D. 62. About this time Paul was cheered by 
an offering sent from the church in Philippi, who 
remembered the apostle in his confinement, Phil. 4. 
This Epistle to the Philippians was also written from 
Rome and sent by the same one that brought the 
gift from the church, namely, Epaphroditus. 

4. All we know of the apostle after this is from 
ecclesiastical writers of the early Christian church. 
From these it has been supposed that he was tried 
and acquitted of the charges against him and that 
after this he visited some of the churches he had 
been instrumental in planting. 

In this route it is thought that from Rome he 
went by Brundusium, thence to Dyrrachium and 



THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 307 

onward to Macedonia and to the churches there. It 
is even thought that now he visited Spain, A. D. 64, 
in accordance with an expression in Rom. 15 : 24, 28. 
But these visits are only conjectural. 

5. It seems however that he was again arrest- 
ed and sent to Rome, some think while spending a 
time at Nicopolis, on the Bay of Actium. In this 
second imprisonment he was confined as a malefac- 
tor, 2 Tim. 2 : 9, and none would visit him or stand 
by him, 2 Tim. i : 16; 4: 16, and now it is said the 
second Epistle to Timothy was written. Whether 
Timothy ever arrived in Rome after this is not 
known. But the second trial came on, and the his- 
tory states that he was condemned to be beheaded ; 
and beyond the city walls, along the road to Ostia, 
the port of Rome, he was led out and executed, a 
Roman swordsman beheading him. 

6. Besides the apostle Paul, only three ap- 
pear as ^vriters in the remaining parts of Scripture ; 
these are James, ''the Lord's brother," Peter, and 
John. James is author of one of the general epistles, 
evidently intended for universal use and not sent to 
any one church, and hence called '' The Epistle Gen- 
eral of James.'' It makes the twentieth of the New 
Testament books. 

Peter is last mentioned when at Antioch, as re- 
corded in Gal. 2:11-21. It is supposed from i Pet. 
5:13 that he remained in Babylon in Chaldaea, where 
at an early period many Jews were settled, as Jose- 
phus shows. He wrote two epistles, which form the 



308 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

twenty-first and twenty-second books of the New 
Testament, and these were written apparently in 
his old age. The tradition is that he suffered mar- 
tyrdom in Rome. 

THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA. 

7. The only other writer of the New Testament 
not yet mentioned is John. He wrote three epistles 
and the book of Revelation, in which are mentioned 
the churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thya- 
tira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, Rev. i : ii. 

Ephesus has already been described. 

8. Smyrna was then ''the ornament of Asia, 
with the finest harbor in the world.'' Although no 
mention is made of it in the book of Acts nor in any 
of the epistles of St. Paul, it may have been one of 
the earliest churches founded by St. John. Eratos- 
thenes states that Smyrna was built by the Cumae- 
ans B. C. 1015, and according to Pliny it took its 
name from an Amazon, Smyrna by name, who found- 
ed it. In the time of the apostles it had a temple 
and hot springs.^ It is at present a populous city, 
built however a little to the south of the ancient site, 
and contains about 200,000 inhabitants. 

9. Pergamos is 50 miles nearly due north from 
Smyrna. It is described during the Roman period 
as the finest city of their new province of Asia. Its 
possession by the Romans was due to the gift of 
Attains its king, B. C. 132. 

^•- Strabo, XIV., chap. i. 



THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 309 

Pergamos was celebrated for its extensive collec- 
tions of libraries and for the patronage of art and 
science at its court. All the ruins now found are of 
the Roman period except a tunnel over the river 
Selinus, now a small stream. This double tunnel 
appears to be extremely ancient, and is supposed to 
be of the time of Attains. It runs under the present 
town of Bergamah for 600 feet, with arches of 40 feet 
diameter and 20 feet high. The present town con- 
tains about 30,000 inhabitants. As the artisans were 
skilled in preparing skins for manuscripts, the skins 
themselves were known by the name of the place, 
and hence the name ''parchment," which is only a 
change of the ancient name of Pergamos. 

10. Thyatira is now called Ak-hissar, ''the 
white castle," from a castle on the white hill back of 
the plain upon which the city is built. The plain 
has always been inhabited, and was celebrated at 
and long before the period of the apostles for its 
manufacture of dyes,^ and this art is alluded to in 
Acts 16: 14. It never had any reputation otherwise, 
but was always a busy trading city. It is 52 or 53 
miles northeast of Smyrna, and was a Macedonian 
colony in the time of Strabo,f but before his time it 
was called Pelopia,:}: upon which site the colony was 
placed by the Syrian king Seleucus Nicator, a gen- 
eral of Alexander the Great. 

* Pliny v., chap. 31. 

t Even in the time of Homer, Iliad, IV., 141. 

t Strabo, XIII., chap. 4, ?4. 



3IO BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

11. Sardis, the once proud capital of Lydia, the 
residence of Croesus, the wealthiest monarch of his 
age, and '' the queen of Asia,""^ is now utterly deso- 
late. The site is about 50 miles east of Smyrna, and 
the river Pactolus is on the west. It is now called 
Sart, and there are to be found only two or three 
huts and a water-mill. 

If Smyrna be taken as a centre of a great circle, 
the three cities last mentioned will be nearly on the 
circumference : Pergamos north, Thyatira north- 
east, and Sardis east, each about 50 miles from the 
centre. 

13. Philadelphia, the next in order as men- 
tioned in Revelation, is east of Sardis about 30 miles, 
on the northeastern slope of Mt. Tmolus, near the 
little stream of the Cogamus, which winds about on 
the plain and falls into the Hermus near Sardis. It 
received its name from its founder, Attains Phila- 
delphus, king of Pergamos, B. C. about 140 years. 
Strabo says that the city was subject to frequent 
earthquakes,f and Tacitus says that Philadelphia was 
nearly entirely destroyed by an earthquake in the 
reign of Tiberius.:}: Although never a city of much 
prominence, it has outlasted Ephesus, Sardis, and 
Laodicea. One-third of the present population, 15,- 
000, are Christians of the Greek Church. It is still 
surrounded by walls, but they are very much dilapi- 
dated. 

* Tristram, ^' Seven Churches." 
t Strabo XIII., chap. 4, J 10. 
t ''Annals/' Vol. II., p. 47. 



THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 3II 

13. Laodicea was once a rich and flourishing 
city, but nothing remains of it but a vast stadium, a 
theatre, and a gymnasium. Laodicea is nearly 100 
miles due east of Ephesus, Colosse is 10 or 12 miles 
southeast, and Hierapolis about the same distance 
nearly north. 

14. Besides the seven cities forming the sites of 
the famous seven churches of Asia, there are two 
others to be noticed, Colosse and Hierapolis. The 
former was written to by St. Paul in his Epistle to 
the Colossians. Nothing remains but a few frag- 
ments of broken columns and building stones. 

Hierapolis received its name from its remarka- 
ble hot springs. At one place the deadly gas (car- 
bonic dioxide) exhaled from the opening of a cave 
where the spring was located, and this exhalation 
caused death to animals and men. This fact origi- 
nated the superstition that some divinity presided 
over the city, and hence it became called Hierapolis, 
*'the holy city." About the time of the apostles 
there was so great an abundance of the water supply 
that baths were built in every part of the city. The 
waters are so heavily charged with lime that they 
deposit stalactites and stalagmites in every direction, 
and the whiteness of the rock and ground over 
which the waters flow is so general that the place 
may be seen at a great distance, and because of its 
dazzling whiteness it receives the name of Pembouk 
Kalessi, '^ Cotton Castle." It is only mentioned in 
Col. 4: 13. 



312 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. 

The apostle John, who outlived the rest of the 
apostles, seems to have had a special interest in 
those seven churches of Asia. He is said to have 
exercised a pastoral care over them all, but at some 
time after the death of Paul he went to Ephesus and 
dwelt there. He was banished to Patmos, probably 
by the Emperor Domitian, A. D. 95, where he wrote 
the Revelation. 

PATMOS. 

This little rugged island was used as a place of 
banishment of Roman criminals. It is 32 miles 
west of the coast of Asia Minor, and is rocky and 
barren and about 28 miles in circumference. It has 
a port on the east where is a deep indentation. The 
population at present is 4,000, all Greeks and a sea- 
faring people. On a height above the principal town 
is a large convent, resembling a fortress, where are 
said to be some valuable manuscripts. 

On his return from banishment John went back 
to Ephesus, where he died at the great age of 95, 
A. D. TOO. He was known to the last as the Holy 
Theologian, and the present name of the little vil- 
lage, Ayasoluk, near Ephesus, is the Turkish form of 
the Greek Hagios-Theologos, the Holy Theologian. 



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ueaciaiTiea using tne DOOKKeeper process, 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2005 

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